President Joe Biden announced that the United States has agreed to purchase an additional 200 million doses of the coronavirus vaccines. He said that the U.S. would get 100 million vaccines from Moderna and the other 100 million from Pfizer.
The additional vaccines bring the total number of doses the U.S. has ordered to 600 million. That should be enough doses to fully vaccinate nearly the entire country by the end of the summer.
"We now have a national strategy to beat Covid-19. It's comprehensive. It's based on science, not politics. It's based on truth, not denial, and it is detailed," Biden said.
To help speed up the distribution of the vaccine, the Biden administration is increasing the number of doses sent to states by 20%. States will now receive ten million doses per week for the next three weeks. The administration also promised to tell states how many doses they will receive up to three weeks in advance to give them more time to work out the logistics of administering the vaccine.
Biden's announcement comes after he set a goal of vaccinating 1.5 million people every day. If the U.S. can keep that pace, 75 million people could be fully vaccinated during the first 100 days of Biden's presidency.
Photo: Getty Images