The United States will make an additional 900,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses available this week to states and pharmacy partners, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Tuesday, as the effort to inoculate Americans from the coronavirus ramps up.
Of the additional 900,000 doses of the vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna, 600,000 will go directly to states and territories, with 300,000 going to the federal pharmacy program.
This brings the total going directly to states and territories nationwide to 15.8 million, up from 15.2 million last week, with the pharmacy program distributing 2.7 million doses.
The news comes amid promising vaccination data nationwide. According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), over 61 million people have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, about 18% of the population, and over 32 million Americans are fully vaccinated, accounting for nearly 10% of the population.
Last week, President Joe Biden directed the pharmacy program to prioritize teachers and childcare workers. Psaki says the U.S. is now delivering an average of 2.17 million doses per day.
There will be no shipments this week of the newly approved single-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine due to manufacturing constraints. Those deliveries, which total 3.9 million doses so far, are set to resume as soon as next week. Another 16 million doses are expected to be shipped by the end of the month.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.