Following the Coronavirus

Biden Says U.S. Will Secure 600M COVID-19 Vaccine Doses by July

By From Staff, Wire Reports 2 min read
Pharmacist Tricia Trueblood with CVS, holds vials of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, Thursday, Jan. 21, 2021, at the Isles of Vero Beach assisted and independent senior living community in Vero Beach, Fla. The government tasked CVS and Walgreens with administering the shots to long-term care locations in nearly every state. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

President Joe Biden said Thursday that the U.S. will have enough supply of the COVID-19 vaccine by the end of the summer to inoculate 300 million Americans.

Biden made the announcement at the sprawling National Institutes of Health complex just outside Washington as he visited some of the nation's leading scientists on the frontlines of the fight against the disease. He toured the Viral Pathogenesis Laboratory that created the COVID-19 vaccine now manufactured by Moderna and being rolled out in the U.S. and other countries.

The U.S. is on pace to exceed Biden's goal of administering 100 million vaccine doses in his first 100 days in office, with more than 26 million shots delivered in his first three weeks.

"That's just the floor," Biden said. "Our end goal is beating COVID-19."

Biden announced on Thursday that the U.S. had secured contractual commitments from Moderna and Pfizer to deliver the 600 million doses of vaccine by the end of July -- more than a month earlier than initially anticipated.

"We're now on track to have enough supply for 300 million Americans by the end of July," he announced.

Locally, the Marshall County Health Department reported one new COVID-related death in its Thursday night update, the 61st such death since the pandemic began. That death was of a 71-year-old man hospitalized at the time of his passing.

The department also announced four new confirmed positive and two probable cases. That brought the county's totals to 2,283 confirmed cases, 610 probable cases and four hospitalizations.

The Wheeling-Ohio County Health Department reported five new cases in its Thursday night update, bringing that county's totals to 3.664 cases and 64 deaths since the pandemic began.

Hancock and Marshall counties were orange on Thursday's Department of Health and Human Resources COVID-19 alert map, while Ohio County was gold and Brooke County was yellow.

In Ohio, the Belmont County Health Department reported 5,142 total cases, 59 hospitalizaions and 93 deaths. The latest death was a woman in her 50s. Her death was reported Thursday.

Starting at /week.