President Joe Biden announced the U.S. has reached a new milestone in the battle against COVID-19: "Today, we will have reached the mark of 300 million shots in arms in just 150 days," he said in brief remarks at the White House Friday, on the 150th day of his presidency.
"We're heading into a very different summer than last year," he said, calling it a "bright summer" and a "summer of joy," after noting that the U.S. has reached the 300 million shots benchmark "months ahead of what most anyone thought was possible when we started." However, the president's self-imposed July 4 deadline for 70% of American adults to have received at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine is approaching soon. In order to hit that target, as of Thursday, the U.S. would have to be giving roughly 717,000 first doses per day. At this point, approximately 347,000 doses per day are being administered, and not all of the people receiving them are adults.
The president said that now, the rates of death and hospitalization "are drastically down in places where people are getting vaccinated." But he added that these numbers are not diminishing in states with lower vaccination rates and "are actually going up in some places," noting that the U.S. had crossed the threshold of 600,000 deaths from COVID-19 a few days ago.
"We're heading into a very different summer than last year," he said, calling it a "bright summer" and a "summer of joy," after noting that the U.S. has reached the 300 million shots benchmark "months ahead of what most anyone thought was possible when we started."
However, the president's self-imposed July 4 deadline for 70% of American adults to have received at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine is approaching soon. In order to hit that target, as of Thursday, the U.S. would have to be giving roughly 717,000 first doses per day. At this point, approximately 347,000 doses per day are being administered, and not all of the people receiving them are adults.
The president said that now, the rates of death and hospitalization "are drastically down in places where people are getting vaccinated." But he added that these numbers are not diminishing in states with lower vaccination rates and "are actually going up in some places," noting that the U.S. had crossed the threshold of 600,000 deaths from COVID-19 a few days ago.