WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden is on track to meet his goal of administering 100 million Covid-19 vaccines in his first 100 days in office, White House coronavirus coordinator Jeffrey Zients said on Wednesday.
Biden created some confusion over his vaccination goal after saying, in his second week in office, that he aimed for a more ambitious goal of 1.5 million vaccines a day, forcing some members of his government to back down.
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“We have been making steady progress over the past few weeks: getting more vaccine supplies, putting more vaccinators on site and creating more places to be vaccinated. We are on track to meet the president’s goal of administering 100 million vaccines in his first 100 days “Zients said at a news conference on Wednesday.
Zients said the government is giving an average of 1.5 million injections a day, compared with 1.1 million two weeks ago.
The government also announced on Wednesday that it would establish three new mass vaccination centers in Texas, as part of efforts to increase the number of Americans receiving vaccines.
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Vaccination centers will be at Ferris Plaza in Dallas, NRG Stadium in Houston and AT&T Stadium in Arlington. Texas centers will collectively administer more than 10,000 injections per day and are due to open in the week of February 22.
Texas is the second state to receive a federal vaccination center, after California. Both states were hit hard by the pandemic.
