WASHINGTON • The US government is buying an additional 200 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines and will have enough to inoculate 300 million Americans – virtually the entire population of the United States – by the end of summer or early autumn, President Joe Biden said on Tuesday.

An additional 100 million doses are being bought from Pfizer and an additional 100 million doses from Moderna, the two companies whose vaccines have been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration, Mr Biden told reporters at the White House.

The latest purchase would take the total number of Covid-19 doses ordered by the government to 600 million, he said.

Mr Biden has pledged to provide 100 million Covid-19 vaccine shots in his first 100 days in office and he said the administration was increasing its overall weekly vaccine supply to states and territories. It is increasing the supply from 8.6 million doses a week to a minimum of 10 million doses.

He noted that vaccinating the entire US population was a daunting challenge and the vaccine programme inherited from the Trump administration “was in worse shape than we anticipated or expected”.

“More than 400,000 Americans have already died,” he said. “This is a wartime undertaking. It’s not hyperbole.

“The death toll, experts tell us, is likely to top 500,000 by the end of next month, this February. And cases will continue to mount,” he added.

The Biden administration is also “actively looking” at expanding mandatory Covid-19 testing to travellers on US domestic flights, a senior Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) official said on Tuesday.

On a call with reporters, Dr Marty Cetron, director of the Division of Global Migration and Quarantine at CDC, was asked whether new domestic travel testing requirements might be employed.

Dr Cetron replied that there were “conversations that are ongoing and looking at what the types and locations of testing might be… We’re actively looking at it”.

Last week, Mr Biden directed US agencies to make recommendations to “impose additional public health measures for domestic travel” and to consider new requirements for people crossing land borders.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, REUTERS

Join ST’s Telegram channel here and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.

Source: Read Full Article