US secures 200 more doses of Moderna, Pfizer vaccines

The United States has secured an additional 200 doses of Moderna and Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines, President Joe Biden announced on Thursday (local time).

"Just this afternoon, we signed the final contracts for 100 million more Moderna and 100 million more Pfizer vaccines. We're also able to move up the delivery dates with an additional 200 million vaccines to the end of July, faster than we expected and in further good news both companies agreed and we're now contractually obligated to expedite delivery of 100 million doses that were promised by the end of June to deliver them by the end of May," he said in an address to the National Institutes of Health.

He also informed that the US is on track to have a vaccine supply for 300 million Americans by the end of July.

"Within three weeks, round the clockwork with so many people standing behind me and in front of me, we've now purchased enough vaccine supply to vaccinate all Americans, and now we're working to get those vaccines into the arms of millions of people," Biden said.

Biden also faulted former President Donald Trump for not doing enough to plan for the vaccination rollout.

"My predecessor -- to be very blunt about it -- did not do his job in getting ready for the massive challenge of vaccinating hundreds of millions of Americans. He didn't order enough vaccines. He didn't mobilize enough people to administer the shots. He didn't set up federal vaccine centers where eligible people could go and get their shots.," said the President.

The US remains the nation worst hit by the pandemic, with the world's most cases and deaths, making up more than 25 percent of the global caseload and nearly 20 percent of the global deaths.

In his concluding remarks, Biden said: "We're in a national emergency and this will be one of the most difficult operational challenges we have ever undertaken as a nation. It's going to take time. We're going to face setbacks along the way and I promise you when we do I'll just own up to it and say what they are."

US COVID-19 cases reached 20 million on January 1, and have increased by 6 million within a month.

According to the latest update by the Johns Hopkins University, US has recorded a total of 27,382,857 infections and 475,040 deaths.

(ANI)

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