President Joe Biden is set to announce that he’s moving up the deadline for states to make all adults in the US eligible for a Covid vaccine by almost two weeks.
Mr Biden plans to say on Tuesday that all American adults will be eligible for a shot by 19 April.
Mr Biden’s previous deadline was 1 May. He said last week that 90 per cent of adults would be eligible to get a vaccine by 19 April and that they would have a vaccination location within five miles of where they live, CNN reported.
He added that the number of pharmacies participating in the vaccination programme was more than doubling, from 17,000 to 40,000.
All 50 states have set a date for when they plan on opening up eligibility to everyone over the age of 16, and some have already taken this step.
The current plan for states like Oregon, South Dakota, Nebraska, Hawaii and New Jersey is to expand eligibility by 1 May. It remains to be seen how Mr Biden’s announcement on Tuesday will change those plans. Mr Biden is expected to boost the efforts of governors to meet his 1 May deadline as the reason that he can now move it up to 19 April.
Mr Biden’s plan for Tuesday is to visit a vaccination location in Alexandria, Virginia, just outside of Washington, DC. He will then give remarks on the vaccination effort from the White House.
