WASHINGTON – All adults in the United States must be eligible to receive the Covid-19 vaccine by April 19, the White House said President Joe Biden will announce in a speech on Tuesday.
The new deadline for states – which is two weeks ahead of what Biden had previously set – should not be difficult to meet, since several states have already started administering the vaccine to anyone over 16 who wants it.
“The president will officially announce in the late afternoon that we have hit 150 million gunshots since we entered the government,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters at the daily briefing. “On April 19, all adult Americans will be eligible to receive the vaccine. This does not mean that they will receive it that day; it means they can get in line that day, if they haven’t done so before ”.
CNN first reported on Biden’s planned eligibility announcement. Most states have already announced that they would open eligibility for all adults by April 19, with only Hawaii to do so, according to the NBC News count. Oregon Governor Kate Brown tweeted after Biden’s planned announcement was informed that his state would also make residents over 16 eligible for vaccination as of that date.
Biden announced in his first prime-time speech as president last month that he was instructing states to make all adults eligible for coronavirus vaccination by May 1.
The president’s announcement on Tuesday comes at a time when officials express concern about another increase in cases from Covid-19, with the incidence rate increasing in young adults. New Covid-19 cases last week rose 7 percent from the previous period, hospital admissions rose 3 percent and deaths dropped slightly to around 800 a day, officials said at a coronavirus meeting at the White House in Monday.
Among those 65 and older, 55 percent of whom are fully vaccinated, there was a decrease in emergency room visits and hospitalizations, officials said.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly a quarter of adults in the United States are fully vaccinated and about 40% have received at least one dose of the Covid-19 vaccine.
Shannon Pettypiece contributed.