Meanwhile, a Gallup poll released on Wednesday reveals that 71 percent of Americans are willing to receive Covid-19 vaccines, up from 65 percent in late December and the highest number on record since July.
Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear said the state will receive more doses from the federal government and added: “It is not enough, but it is great.”
“I would like to have 200,000 doses a week now. We could allocate them all,” said Beshear.
But there is good news: the Biden government said on Tuesday that it is increasing the weekly supply of vaccines to states, tribes and territories to 11 million doses, and continues to work with manufacturers to increase supplies.
Zients spoke on Wednesday at a virtual press conference with New York Governor Andrew Cuomo to announce that two mass vaccination centers will open in Queens and Brooklyn. The White House team is “moving quickly to put more vaccinators in place” and is working with the state of New York to identify additional locations.
“We are getting to know communities where they are, in places they know and trust,” said Zients. “We hope to continue to develop these partnerships with states and localities to design innovative models that meet the needs of the communities we serve.”
In Texas, three new major community vaccination centers will open in Dallas, Arlington and Houston, Zients announced.
And Arizona is receiving a third state-sponsored vaccination site, scheduled to serve 6,000 people a day, Governor Doug Ducey announced on Wednesday.
“The demand for vaccine doses is high and the Arizonans have made it clear that they want to. We are working hard to secure more doses from the federal government and to partner with public and private organizations to distribute the vaccine and protect the Arizonans,” said Ducey. .
Walmart among stores that will offer vaccine
More than 1,000 Walmart and Sam’s Club pharmacies in 22 states will begin administering the vaccine as part of the Federal Retail Pharmacy Program, according to Walmart. It is not clear how many doses will be available.
The company said on Tuesday that it worked with the CDC to identify drugstore locations according to factors such as population density and infection rates, and also analyzed locations in clinically underserved areas.
Walmart and Sam’s Club pharmacies are already vaccinating in 11 states with state budgets, according to the company’s press release.
The Biden government announced last week that the federal government will begin direct shipments of coronavirus vaccines to retail pharmacies starting on Thursday, with a total of 1 million doses going to about 6,500 stores before eventually expanding .
CVS and Walgreens said they will get about 420,000 doses out of the 1 million doses available.
82% of unvaccinated educators reveals research
Amid talks across the country about the steps needed to reopen schools in safe schools, the country’s largest teacher union released a survey showing that about 82% of the educators it represents have not yet received the vaccine.
After surveying more than 3,300 of its members, the association found that about 70% said they would feel safer to return to face-to-face learning if they were vaccinated. About 64% said they were working in school buildings all or part of the time.
The perceived risk of Covid-19 is lower in months
Wednesday’s Gallup poll showed that Republicans and Democrats are willing to be vaccinated – 51% and 91%, respectively.
Of the reluctant people, 25% said they feared vaccines would be rushed; 22% want to see if they are safe for other people; 16% do not trust vaccines in general; and 9% want to see how effective they are. The survey also found that two-thirds of Americans were not satisfied with the progress of the vaccination effort.
The variants are complicating the outlook and worrying the experts.
The CDC data updated on Tuesday show that more than 940 cases of Covid-19 variants first detected in the UK, South Africa and Brazil have been reported in the USA – most of them the highly contagious variant known as B.1.1. 7, originally detected in the UK.
That number is worrying enough. But the CDC says it probably does not represent the total number of variant cases, only those found by analyzing positive samples from Covid-19.
Americans’ risk perception is the lowest in months, according to a new survey by Axios-Ipsos. About 66% of people surveyed reported that they thought there was a moderate or high risk of returning to pre-pandemic life. The last time that number was so low was in October.
CNN’s Samira Said, Deidre McPhillips, Naomi Thomas, Meridith Edwards, Jen Christensen, John Bonifield, Rebekah Riess and Jacqueline Howard contributed to this report.