All US adults to be eligible for vaccine by April 19
President Joe Biden announced Tuesday that he is moving up his deadline for all US adults to be eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine to April 19, two weeks earlier than the May 1 deadline he previously announced.
"Everyone is going to be able to do this before the month is out," Biden said while touring a pop-up vaccination site at the Virginia Theological Seminary in Alexandria, Virginia.
"That doesn't mean they will get it that day — it means they can join the line that day if they have not already done that beforehand," White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Tuesday at a White House briefing.
"It means that everybody will be eligible to go to their local pharmacy, go to their community health center, mobile vaccination site, mass vaccination site on the date and moving forward," Psaki said.
Coronavirus cases rose to 79,075 on Monday, while 607 deaths were recorded, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. As of Monday, the seven-day average of newly reported cases is more than 62 million, higher than the 14-day average.
New cases in Michigan have increased by 112 percent, and hospitalizations have increased by 108 percent over the past two weeks, according to data in The New York Times.
The administration is also sending a message to seniors — who are one of the most vulnerable populations — to get their shots now if they haven't because lines are about to become longer. More than 75 percent of people over the age of 65 have gotten a shot, and 55 percent of them are fully vaccinated.
The announcement comes as a dozen of states already have expanded COVID-19 vaccine eligibility to anyone 16 and older. Several states that previously announced plans to open up vaccine eligibility by early May also have changed their timelines to open up in late March or early April.
Oregon on Tuesday became the latest state to announce those 16 or older will be eligible for vaccination on April 19. New York and Maryland will open vaccine eligibility to those who are 16 years or older on Tuesday.
The US has delivered 150 million vaccines within his first 75 days in office, Biden said. The number is in line with a stated goal of 200 million shots by his 100th day in office.
More than 3 million doses are being administered on average each day, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Four in 10 Americans have had at least one vaccine dose. About 62.4 million people — 19 percent of Americans — have been fully vaccinated.
The US had administered more than 165 million doses as of Monday night, with China having administered about 140 million shots, according to online scientific publication Our World in Data.
The White House on Tuesday told governors that more than 28 million additional doses of vaccines will go out to states, jurisdictions and other programs this week.
A new COVID-19 vaccine developed by the US Army will begin testing adult volunteers on Tuesday. Army researchers say the new vaccine may protect against a variety of coronavirus variants.
The Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in Silver Spring, Maryland, said that a team will test 72 adults ages 18 to 55 to see whether the vaccine is safely able to induce the desired immune response. Some of the research subjects will receive two doses of the vaccine, while others will receive one.
Initial results of the study could become available by midsummer. If the data are positive, the Army likely would try to join with a drug company to further test and develop the vaccine, Kayvon Modjarrad, director of the institute's emerging infectious disease branch, told The Wall Street Journal.
"If successful in testing, the vaccine also could be used as a booster shot in people who have previously received one of the now-authorized vaccines, to shore up immunity against variants," Modjarrad said. "The vaccine could be used in the broader population, not just among members of the military."
