WASHINGTON – The Biden administration will increase the supply of Covid-19 vaccines sent to states by 5 percent next week and begin sending doses directly to community health centers that target low-income people.
Since President Joe Biden took office, the number of doses sent to the states has increased 28 percent to 11 million doses per week as Pfizer and Moderna increase production, said White House coordinator Covid- 19, Jeffrey Zients.
“It’s the manufacturers doing a good job and the president and the team doing everything we can to support this manufacturing,” said Zients. The Biden government announced last week that it would use the Defense Production Act to obtain additional equipment from Pfizer to further increase production.
In addition to the doses sent to state governments, federal authorities will begin sending 1 million vaccines directly to 250 community health centers, which serve hard-to-reach groups, such as homeless people, migrant workers and residents of public housing, said Marcella Nunez- Smith, who leads Biden’s Covid-19 Equity Task Force.
“Equity is our northern star here,” she said. “This effort that focuses on direct allocation to community health centers really has to do with connecting with hard-to-reach populations across the country.”
People of color have been vaccinated at a lower rate than whites, state and federal data indicate. Biden government officials attributed this to a number of barriers, such as less access to health care in minority communities.
On February 4, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that 32 million first doses were administered and more than 9 million people were fully vaccinated.
