Biden raises vaccination goal to 1.5m a day after criticism
After criticism that his original goal was not bold enough, US President Joe Biden has said he expects the US will soon be able to vaccinate 1.5 million people a day. He had announced last week that 1m vaccines would be administered daily in the first 100 days of his presidency. But some media noted the US had already nearly reached that target under the Trump administration. Mr Biden also renewed Trump-era Covid bans on Monday, adding South Africa. In the first time formally taking reporters’ questions during his presidency, Mr Biden said on Monday that he hoped they would be able to get to 1.5 million vaccinations administered daily. “I think with the grace of God… we’ll be able to get that to 1.5 million a day,” the Democrat said. He added: “I hope we’ll be able to increase as we go along so we’ll get to 1.5 million. That’s my hope.”
Some media had questioned whether the new president’s target of one million shots per day was ambitious enough.
Last week, at the tail-end of the Trump administration, the US had already reached an average of around 980,000 vaccine doses administered daily. When an Associated Press news agency reporter asked last Thursday why Mr Biden had not aimed higher, he shot back: “You all said it’s not possible. Come on, give me a break man.”(BBC)…[+]