Biden secures 200m extra vaccine doses as COVID-19 infection rate drops in US

*United States President Joe Biden announces a fresh deal with Moderna and Pfizer for supply of 200 million more doses of COVID-19 vaccines by July to vaccinate 300 million Americans in the two-dose regimen

Isola Moses | ConsumerConnect

As several states in the US struggle to receive ‘adequate supplies’ of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccines, the Joe Biden administration has announced an agreement with pharmaceutical firms Moderna and Pfizer to make more vaccine doses and deliver them faster.

President Biden in his remarks at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced that the two drug makers had both agreed to deliver 100 million additional doses each and speed up the production schedule, agency report said.

Subsequently, the President has stated the country would have enough COVID-19 vaccine doses by July 2021 to vaccinate 300 million Americans in the two-dose regimen.

United States President Joe Biden getting a COVID-19 vaccine shot   Photo: BBC

That does not take into account the likely approval of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine later this month, according to report.

It was learnt Johnson & Johnson disclosed it already has millions of doses of its vaccine candidate on hand, and is ready to distribute them.

Biden stated: “We have to stay vigilant; we have to stay focused and for God’s sake, we have to remember who we are.

“We are the United States of America. We can do this.”

Report indicates that Biden’s latest announcement for supplementary Coronavirus vaccines comes as Americans age 65 and older have been added to the pool of people eligible to receive a vaccine.

However, states were said to have struggled to find enough vaccine doses to meet the demand in recent times.

When retail pharmacies began receiving direct shipments of vaccines from the government this week, the allotted doses were booked within hours.

Recall Biden had expressed frustration with the ‘inherited’ national vaccine rollout programme from the Donald Trump administration.

The President remarked about the way the Trump administration had handled the COVID-19 vaccine management, that “my predecessor, to be very blunt about it, did not do his job to get ready for the massive challenge of vaccinating hundreds of millions of Americans.”

Making the vaccine is one thing. Getting it into people’s arms is another. Administration officials are hopeful that anyone who wants the vaccine will be vaccinated by the end of August this year, report noted.

Meanwhile, the pace of the Coronavirus outbreak in the United States, especially in hard-hit states has continued to ease as the country’s week-to-week average fell to its lowest in almost four months, specifically since October 2020, according to report.

ConsumerConnect reports confirmed new US cases of COVID-19 dropped to about 84,000 Saturday, February 13, compared with an average 97,240 for the seven days ended Friday — the country’s lowest week-to-week average since late October 2020, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University and Bloomberg.

While testing has declined slightly nationwide, as the positive-test rate also has fallen from more than 13 percent early this year to less than 6 percent, according to JHU data.

As regards key developments in the management of COVIDi19, the Global Tracker indicated Coronavirus cases exceed 108.5 million with deaths passing 2.3 million.

Whereas in terms of vaccination, more than 172 million shots were given worldwide as of Sunday, February 14, according to Bloomberg’s Vaccine Tracker.