Biden announces goal of at least one Covid-19 vaccine shot to 70% of US adults and increased funding for community outreach groups fund

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Tue, 2021-05-04 20:37 — mike kraft

Biden sets goal of administering at least one Covid-19 vaccine shot to 70% of US adult population by July 4 President Joe Biden on Tuesday set a new goal of administering at least one Covid-19 vaccine dose to 70% of the US adult population and having 160 million US adults fully vaccinated by July 4. Kate Sullivan and Betsy Klein, CNN CNN

(CNN) President Joe Biden on Tuesday set a new goal of administering at least one Covid-19 vaccine dose to 70% of the US adult population and having 160 million US adults fully vaccinated by July 4.

"We're going to make it easier than ever to get vaccinated," Biden said Tuesday in his remarks.

He added, "Two months from today ... families across the country are going to celebrate the Fourth of July. Our goal, by July Fourth, is to have 70% of adult Americans with at least one shot and at least 160 Americans fully vaccinated."

To meet this goal, Biden directed tens of thousands of pharmacies participating in the federal pharmacy program to offer walk-in appointments and redirect Federal Emergency Management Agency resources to support more pop-up clinics, smaller community vaccination sites and more mobile clinics, senior administration officials said.

The Biden administration will also ship new allocations of Covid-19 vaccines to rural health clinics across the nation and provide additional funding to help communities conduct outreach to help get more Americans vaccinated.

The President announced an effort to get adolescents vaccinated as soon as possible if a Covid-19 vaccine is cleared for use in the US for this age group. The FDA is poised to authorize Pfizer/BioNTech's coronavirus vaccine in children and teens ages 12 to 15 by early next week, a federal government official told CNN. The Pfizer/BioNtech vaccine, like the Moderna vaccine, is a two-shot regimen while the Johnson & Johnson vaccine only requires one shot.

Extending the emergency authorization to people in this age group would open Covid-19 vaccine eligibility to an additional 5% of the US population.

"We will be able to mobilize immediately," a senior administration official told reporters, should the emergency use authorization be granted. The official said about half of the federal pharmacy program will be ready to vaccinate this age group, and that vaccines will be ready to ship to pediatricians and family doctors.

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The President announced nearly $250 million in funding for community-based organizations to hire and mobilize community outreach workers, community health workers, social support specialists, and others to increase access to the Covid-19 vaccines for those hardest-hit by the pandemic.

Biden also announced more than $130 million in funding to improve vaccine education and information and to work on reducing health disparities in underserved communities.

Nearly $250 million will be immediately awarded to states, territories and certain large city governments to fund the next phase of their vaccine outreach efforts. More than $100 million in duding will go to approximately 4,600 rural health clinics across the country to support vaccine outreach in rural communities.

In addition, nearly $860 million in funding will go toward supporting rural health clinics and rural hospitals in broadening their Covid-19 testing and mitigation capacity in order to stop the spread of the virus.

"We're going to make it easier than ever to get vaccinated," Biden said.

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