WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The first known case of a highly infectious coronavirus variant in the U.S. was detected in Colorado on Tuesday, and President-elect Joe Biden said it could take years for most Americans to be vaccinated against the virus at rates current distribution systems.
Biden’s prediction of a harsh winter came with the goal of reducing public expectations that the pandemic will end soon after he took office on January 20, while sending a message to Congress that his government wants to increase significantly spending to streamline vaccine distribution, expand testing and provide funding to states to help reopen schools.
Biden, a Democrat, said about 2 million people had been vaccinated, well below the 20 million that Republican President Donald Trump had promised by the end of the year. Biden defeated Trump in the November elections.
“As I have long feared and warned, the effort to distribute and administer the vaccine is not progressing as it should,” said Biden in Wilmington, Delaware. At the current rate, “it will take years, not months, to vaccinate the American people.”
Shortly after his comments, Colorado Governor Jared Polis announced on Twitter that his state had discovered a case of a highly infectious coronavirus variant B.1.1.7 first detected in the UK.
Today we discover the first Colorado case of COVID-19 variant B.1.1.7, the same variant discovered in the United Kingdom.
The health and safety of Coloradans is our highest priority and we will monitor this case, as well as all COVID-19 indicators, very closely. pic.twitter.com/fjyq7QhzBi
– Governor Jared Polis (@GovofCO) December 29, 2020
Biden’s goal of ensuring that 100 million shots are administered by the end of his 100th day in office would mean “increasing the current pace five to six times to 1 million shots a day,” said Biden, noting that he would require approval Congress additional funding.
“Even with this improvement, even if we increase the speed of vaccinations to 1 million vaccines a day, it will still take months for the majority of the United States population to be vaccinated,” he said. He predicted that the situation may not improve until “mid-March”.
Biden also said he plans to invoke the Defense Production Act, which gives the president the power to expand industrial production of materials or products essential for national security or other reasons, to “speed up the manufacture of the materials needed for the vaccine”.
Trump himself invoked the law during the pandemic.
To reopen schools safely, Biden said Congress would need to provide funds for things like additional transportation, so students can maintain social distance and improve ventilation in school buildings.
Congress also needs to help make COVID-19 tests more easily available and help pay for protective equipment for healthcare professionals, added Biden.
Harris gets the vaccine
Earlier in the day, Vice President-elect Kamala Harris received a COVID-19 vaccination live on television in an attempt to boost confidence in the vaccination, even though she warned that it will take months before it is available to everyone.
Harris, who is black and Asian-American, received the Modern COVID-19 vaccine from a nurse wearing a mask and visor at a predominantly black medical center in southeastern Washington.
Biden’s team emphasized the importance of encouraging vaccine distribution and inoculation in non-white groups especially affected by the coronavirus.
Biden promised to give priority to fighting the coronavirus, which infected more than 19 million people in the United States and killed more than 334,000. He received his first injected dose of the vaccine live on television last week. Two doses are required for full protection.
Trump, who had COVID-19 in October, often downplayed the severity of the pandemic and oversaw a response that many health experts say is disorganized and arrogant and sometimes ignored the science behind the transmission of the disease.
Biden repeated his call for people to wear masks and listen to the advice of medical experts to prevent the spread of the infection.
Dr. Atul Gawande, a member of Biden’s COVID-19 advisory board, told CBS News that the transition team did not yet have all the information it needed to understand the bottlenecks that prevent the vaccine from being distributed.
He said the Trump administration may have set unrealistic expectations that anyone wishing to be vaccinated would do so by the end of June 2021.
Separately, on Tuesday, US Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell postponed voting on Trump’s call to raise COVID-19 exemption checks for Americans to $ 2,000, in a rare challenge for his colleague republican. Biden said he was in favor of the $ 600 increase already approved.
(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt, Susan Heavey, Lisa Lambert and David Brunnstrom; Writing by David Brunnstrom and Lawrence Hurley; Editing by Noeleen Walder, Jonathan Oatis and Howard Goller)