Coronavirus live news: Biden warns deaths will pass 600,000 before US turns corner
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President Joe Biden on Monday appeared to boost his goal for coronavirus vaccinations in his first 100 days in office, suggesting that the nation could soon be vaccinating 1.5 million Americans on average per day, AP reports.
Biden signalled his increasing bullishness on the pace of vaccinations after signing an executive order to boost government purchases from US manufacturers. It was among a flurry of moves by Biden during his first full week to show he’s taking swift action to heal an ailing economy as talks with Congress over a $1.9tn stimulus package showed few signs of progress.
Biden’s new vaccination target comes after he and his aides faced criticism for the 100 million goal in his first 100 days in office. The US has exceeded a pace of 1 million doses per day over the last week.
“I think we may be able to get that to ... 1.5 million a day, rather than 1 million a day,” Biden said, “but we have to meet that goal of a million a day.”
Biden added that he expects widespread availability of the vaccines for Americans by spring, with the US “well on our way to herd immunity” necessary to end the pandemic by summer. Even so, he warned the nation was going to be “in this for a while, and could see between “600,000 and 660,000 deaths before we begin to turn the corner in a major way.”
A toll of 660,000 would be roughly equivalent to one in 500 Americans.
Hello and welcome to today’s live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic with me, Helen Sullivan.
You can find me on Twitter @helenrsullivan.
Continue reading...from The Guardian https://ift.tt/3qPEEWN
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