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“It’s a big country, and as fast as we go, we still have a long way to go to complete this vaccination effort,” the president said in a speech. “But being at 90-90 in just three weeks should give the country hope.”
He added that a “new record” of 30 million doses of the coronavirus vaccine was awarded to states this week. By comparison, just over 23 million were available the week of March 19.
The focus on pharmacies comes as their collective doses administered have far exceeded the mass vaccination sites the administration has set up across the country, POLITICO reported on Monday morning.
Nearly 40,000 pharmacies across the country will be on board to deliver vaccine doses, up from 17,000 previously. There are 21 pharmacy chains in the government immunization program. The administration will also expand its program for mass vaccination sites, adding 12 more to the 21 existing centers.
The White House announced Biden’s willingness to expand access to vaccines hours after senior federal health officials issued dire warnings that new cases were on the rise again – and that it was too much early in the vaccination campaign to relax social distancing and safety guidelines.
“Right now I’m scared,” CDC director Rochelle Walensky said in a briefing Monday.
“It will be a race between a vaccine and what happens with the dynamics of the epidemic,” White House chief medical adviser Anthony Fauci said at the same briefing.
Biden himself has pleaded with states to halt reopening efforts and reinstate mask warrants, his most direct appeal to governors to date. The president called wearing a mask a “patriotic duty” because despite the progress in vaccination, “cases are increasing and the virus is still spreading in too many places”.
The government has already shipped millions of doses to 21 mass vaccination sites established across the country as part of a Federal Emergency Management Agency program to establish centers in different regions. The sites have administered 67,000 shots per day in recent weeks, according to a series of internal FEMA briefings and datasets obtained by POLITICO. But federal data shows the retail pharmacy program rather than the mass-site strategy could reach many Americans faster, four people familiar with it said.
“Many pharmacies have a patient waiting list that they will now be able to meet,” said Kurt Proctor, senior vice president of strategic initiatives for the National Community Pharmacists Association. “Some states have hired pharmacies and then pulled back from that to mass events or inpatient types of approaches. I hope states recognize what the Biden administration recognizes. “
The White House said in a statement with Biden’s announcement that mass vaccination sites would be able to administer around 79,000 injections per day once they are at full capacity.
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