Official: President Biden Moving Vaccine Eligibility Date For All US Adults To April 19
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Joe Biden plans to announce Tuesday that he is moving up his deadline for states to make all American adults eligible for a coronavirus vaccine by almost two weeks. With all states having opened eligibility to the public or at least having announced when they plan to do so, Biden will announce that every adult in the country will be eligible to be vaccinated by April 19, according to an administration official, instead of Biden's original deadline of May 1.
Biden announced last week that 90% of adults will be eligible to get a coronavirus vaccine by April 19, as well as have a vaccination site within five miles of where they live. Biden said the number of pharmacies participating in the federal pharmacy vaccination program was increasing from the current 17,000 locations to 40,000.
CNN has previously reported that all 50 states have announced when they plan to open vaccinations to everyone who is eligible, if they haven't done so already. Oregon, South Dakota, Nebraska, Hawaii and New Jersey all currently plan to open eligibility by May 1, so it remains to be seen how Biden's announcement changes those states' plans. Biden is expected to credit the governors' effort to meet his May 1 deadline for this change.
On Tuesday, the President is scheduled to visit a vaccination site in Alexandria, Virginia, and then give remarks on the state of vaccinations from the White House. That's when he is expected to say that 150 million doses of the coronavirus vaccine have been administered within his first 75 days in office, in line with a stated goal of 200 million shots by his 100th day in office.
Biden will tout how the US reported more than 4 million doses of coronavirus vaccine administered in a single 24-hour period last weekend. That record came at the same time federal officials put Johnson & Johnson officials in charge of a Baltimore facility and stopped it from making another vaccine by AstraZeneca after an ingredient error ruined potentially 15 million one-shot doses.
As other nations clamor for more shots, including from the US, Biden also plans to say Tuesday that the US is the first country to administer 150 million shots. According to Our World in Data, the US had administered more than 165 million doses as of Monday night, with China in second having administered a little less than 140 million shots.
The President will say more than 75% of people over the age of 65 have gotten a shot and over 55% of them are fully vaccinated, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention -- a number that was at 8% when he took office.
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