The federal government announced it is increasing the number of coronavirus vaccines being shipped to states to 13.5 million. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said that is Biden administration has increased the weekly shipments by 57% since President Joe Biden was inaugurated.
Psaki also said that the administration will be sending out two million vaccines per week to retail pharmacies with the goal of providing enough vaccines to stock at least 40,000 locations across the country.
"This program will expand access in neighborhoods across the country so that people can call and make an appointment and get their shot conveniently and quickly," she said. "This is a critical, critical part of our plan."
While the administration has been increasing the number of vaccines getting shipped out each week, it will still take a few months before the vaccines are readily available for anybody who wants one. Dr. Anthony Fauci predicts that most people won't be fully vaccinated until the end of the summer.
"It may take until June, July, and August to finally get everybody vaccinated," Dr. Fauci said on CNN. "So when you hear about how long it's going to take to get the overwhelming proportion of the population vaccinated, I don't think anybody disagrees that that's going to be well to the end of the summer and we get into the early fall."
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