President Joe Biden announced Tuesday that all adults in the United States will be eligible to
receive the COVID-19 vaccine beginning April 19
, according to a White House official.
With this measure, the president advances almost two weeks the date he had originally given of May 1.
So far, most states in the country had already announced their plans to extend vaccination to all adults by that date.
According to our sister network, NBC News,
Hawaii and Oregon
were the only states to date that had not communicated their intention to extend immunization eligibility to April 19.
[Biden Announces Purchase of 100 Million Additional Doses of Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 Vaccine]
Biden is also expected to speak about a goal achieved by his administration in his first 75 days in the White House: the administration of
150 million doses of vaccines.
He will also highlight that a new vaccination record was set on Friday.
More than four million people were immunized against the coronavirus.
The president will visit a vaccination center in Alexandria, Virginia on Tuesday, and then he will speak from the White House.
The United States reached an important milestone in the battle against COVID-19:
More than 100 million people
had received at least one dose of the vaccine as of Friday, and nearly 58 million have been fully vaccinated, according to the latest figures from the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention.
Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
These are the key dates in the Biden Administration's plan to move towards reopening
March 12, 202102: 23
A little over a year after the pandemic,
101.8 million have been vaccinated for the first time in the United States
against the virus, which is just over 30% of the total population of the country.
Biden announced on March 11 that he would direct states to consider all adults eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine no later than May 1.
In his first primetime speech since taking office, and just a year into the pandemic, he also said that there was a possibility that people
could safely gather
in small groups for the July 4 celebrations.
That day, Biden stressed that the "fight is far from over," but that the nation will be in a
"much better place" by Independence Day
if people continue to wear face masks, follow public health guidelines, and get vaccinated when it's your turn.
[Human error ruins 15 million doses of Johnson & Johnson vaccine in the United States]
He also revealed his Administration's plans to
double the number of pharmacies
participating in the vaccination program, expand mobile operations to vaccinate people in communities that have been hard hit by the virus, and double the number of mass vaccination centers. administered by the federal government.
Biden said it would send more doses of the vaccine to about 950 community health centers and up to 20,000 retail pharmacies to make it easier for people to inject closer to where they live.
With information from
NBC News
.