Biden plans more weekly COVID-19 vaccines to states, greater notice on what’s coming
President Joe Biden plans to increase weekly shipments of COVID-19 vaccine doses to states from 8.6 million doses to a minimum of 10 million and will give state and local officials a greater heads up on what deliveries are coming their way, senior Biden administration officials said Tuesday.
The administration is also working to secure an additional 200 million doses – 100 million of each of the two vaccines currently authorized for use, produced by Pfizer and Moderna – that can be delivered by the summer.
The Biden administration made the announcements after consulting with governors around the country on what they need most in distributing coronavirus vaccines. Jeff Zients, the head of the president’s COVID-19 response team, led a call with governors earlier Thursday to outline their plans.
“The vaccines are distributed to states based on population,” Biden said, announcing the new policies at a White House event. “So this is going to allow millions of Americans to get vaccinated sooner than previously anticipated.”
One common concern expressed by governors is not knowing until last minute what shipments are coming in.
Biden said it was “unacceptable” that governors would have to “guess” a week in advance what shipments were coming.
“This is something we’ve heard over and over again from both Democrats and Republicans, state and local leaders, that they need to know what they have to plan on,” Biden said. “They need to know what the order is going to be.”
The president’s goal is to provide states “with a reliable three-week supply look-ahead,” one administration official said.
“This increased transparency will give state and local leaders greater certainty around supply so that they can plan their vaccination efforts and administer vaccines effectively and efficiently,” the official said.
This story was originally published January 26, 2021 at 1:30 PM with the headline "Biden plans more weekly COVID-19 vaccines to states, greater notice on what’s coming."
