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The White House Coronavirus Task Force on Wednesday said the federal government was working to establish community coronavirus vaccination sites across the country with help from the Department of Defense and the Federal Agency for emergency management while maintaining that immunizing all Americans against COVID-19 is “one of the greatest operational challenges the country has ever faced.
White House Coronavirus Task Force Director Jeffrey Zients at a COVID-19 briefing on Wednesday said the administration was “on track” to meet President Biden’s target administer 100 million COVID-19 vaccines during their first 100 days in office.
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Zients said the administration is “encouraged” by the progress being made in increasing vaccine supply and continues “to push for every opportunity to do more.”
“We are at war with this virus. It is clearly a national emergency,” Zients said. “And we’re doing all we can.”
“It won’t be easy,” Zients said. “Vaccinating everyone in America is one of the greatest operational challenges we have ever faced and we will not stop working until this mission is completed.”
Zients described a number of steps the Biden administration took in its first two weeks in office, including the government’s purchase of an additional 200 million doses of the vaccine – a move officials hope they can make. vaccinate most Americans by the end of the summer.
“We’re on track to meet the president’s goal of 100 million shots in 100 days,” Zients said, noting that on average 1.3 million vaccines have been administered per day since Biden took its functions.
Zients also announced Wednesday that the Biden administration has embarked on a “government-wide effort” to give Americans “access to more places to get vaccinated” and to establish community vaccination centers across the country.
“The federal government is stepping up support to strengthen community vaccination sites,” Zients said, adding that on Wednesday FEMA provided more than $ 1.7 billion to 27 states, towns, tribes and territories to cover the “ critical steps “in the establishment of these sites. , including transport equipment and PPE.
Zients said the government is deploying staff to provide “technical assistance” to support these vaccination sites and said FEMA has already engaged more than 600 staff in this effort as well as members of the National Guard and the National Guard. CDC.
Zients added that the Defense Department “will also devote substantial staff and resources to help manage many of these new sites,” which can range from large centers, to schools, to mobile units, to pop-up units.
This week, the Biden administration is teaming up with California to establish two community vaccination sites – one in East Oakland and the other east of Los Angeles on the campus of California State University LA, which Zients called it “one of the most diverse public universities in the countryside.”
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“These sites in California are just the beginning,” Zients said. “In the first two weeks, we activated a whole-of-government response, increased vaccine supply, and ensured that all Americans, in every community, had more places to get immunized.
But Zients urged Congress to pass the president’s coronavirus relief package, saying their work is “critical” and would support the administration’s needs to “step up the immunization program,” increase testing and give families , schools, businesses, and state and local leaders “the support they need.”
The status of the President’s “American bailout” is unclear at this point. The president welcomed a group of Republican senators to the Oval Office on Monday and signaled his willingness to work on the legislation in a bipartisan fashion.
Republicans announced a $ 600 billion plan on Sunday, which includes stimulus checks of $ 1,000 per person and $ 300 per week in increased unemployment benefits through June 30.
The package, however, is significantly smaller than that of Biden’s US bailout, which would cost a whopping $ 1.9 trillion.
Democrats, meanwhile, are moving forward with the procedural steps they would need to pass a plan under what’s known as budget reconciliation, a once-per-fiscal-year gambit that allows the Senate to bypass. a filibuster on the budget and public finances. legislation.
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