WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden said on Monday that the United States will achieve its goal of administering 100 million coronavirus vaccines ahead of schedule, reaching the 100 million stimulus check mark sent to Americans under its Covid aid package. -19.
“It’s here, sooner than many thought possible,” said Biden in comments at the White House. “In the next 10 days, we will achieve two gigantic goals: One hundred million shots in people’s arms and 100 million checks in people’s pockets.”
Biden promised before assuming that his government would distribute more than 100 million doses in its first 100 days, a goal that many said was ambitious, given the slow start to the vaccine’s launch.
As of Monday, the U.S. averages 2.4 million doses a week, according to NBC News. In the meantime, stimulus checks began to reach the bank accounts of many Americans over the weekend.
Biden made the comments when he, Vice President Kamala Harris and their wives started traveling the country to speak directly to Americans about the benefits of the $ 1.9 trillion Covid-19 aid package.
Biden will begin the “Help is Here” tour on Monday afternoon with comments from the White House on the implementation of the plan.
Harris and her husband, Doug Emhoff, will travel to Las Vegas on Monday, where they will visit a vaccination clinic at the University of Nevada and the Las Vegas Culinary Academy. Then the couple will head to Los Angeles, where they will spend the night.
Meanwhile, First Lady Jill Biden will spend the day in Burlington, New Jersey, where she will tour a primary school and comment on the rescue plan, which includes funds to help schools reopen students for personal learning. .
The president will travel to Delaware County in Pennsylvania on Tuesday and to Georgia on Friday to promote how the legislation will benefit people and their families, according to the White House. The president won the two states in the 2020 presidential election in November.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters last week that Biden and his team are hitting the road because “he wants to ensure that people have access to this information”.
“We will have people communicating directly in the communities, but we will also use a variety of tools at our disposal, including digital engagement and communication, local interviews and also the use of several members of our Cabinet who have important roles in the implementation,” she said. .
The Treasury Department announced over the weekend that it has started delivering direct stimulus payments to people across the country, which it said will be “distributed in installments to millions of Americans in the coming weeks”.
Biden will call on Gene Sperling to lead the implementation of the aid package, a government official confirmed on Monday. The longtime Democratic political advisor led the White House National Economic Council under former presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama and served as an informal adviser to the Biden campaign. The Washington Post reported its new role for the first time.
Sperling will “work with the heads of White House policy councils and top leaders in federal agencies so that we can obtain funds quickly, maximize their impact and accelerate the work the government is doing to crush Covid-19 and rescue our economy” said the official. “And they will be partners with state and local governments – just as the president did with the Recovery Act.”
Geoff Bennett contributed.