US secured 200 million more doses of Moderna and Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccines: Biden

The United States has secured an additional 200 million doses of Moderna and Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine, announced US President Joe Biden on February 11. In an address to the National Institutes of Health on Thursday, Biden said that the nation has signed the “final contracts” with both the companies for 100 million doses of each COVID-19 vaccine candidate and have even moved up the delivery date. What US President termed as “further good news”, both companies have agreed and now are “contractually obligated” to expedite the delivery of jabs by the end of May and not in June. 

"Just this afternoon, we signed the final contracts for 100 million more Moderna and 100 million more Pfizer vaccines. We're also able to move up the delivery dates with an additional 200 million vaccines to the end of July, faster than we expected and in further good news both companies agreed and we're now contractually obligated to expedite delivery of 100 million doses that were promised by the end of June to deliver them by the end of May," Joe Biden said.

The US President also said that the nation is on track to have the vaccine supply for 300 million citizens by the end of July. Biden said, “Within three weeks, round the clockwork with so many people standing behind me and in front of me, we've now purchased enough vaccine supply to vaccinate all Americans, and now we're working to get those vaccines into the arms of millions of people.”

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Biden blamed Trump for ‘not doing his job’

In the same address on Thursday, Biden blamed his predecessor, Donald Trump for ‘not doing his job’ and being ‘very blunt about it’. The Democratic President faulted the former Republican leader of the United States for not planning enough about the vaccine rollout even amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Biden claimed that Trump ‘didn’t order enough vaccines’ and ‘didn’t mobilise enough people’ for its administration. The United States remains the worst hit of the COVID-19 pandemic as it has recorded most cases and deaths, in the world. Reportedly, the US also amounts to 25% of the global caseload and nearly 20% of the global death toll due to coronavirus infection. 

"My predecessor -- to be very blunt about it -- did not do his job in getting ready for the massive challenge of vaccinating hundreds of millions of Americans. He didn't order enough vaccines. He didn't mobilize enough people to administer the shots. He didn't set up federal vaccine centres where eligible people could go and get their shots.," said the US President.

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