US: Biden to meet key 100M vaccine shot goal on Friday

WASHINGTON

US President Joe Biden said Thursday he is on pace to achieve his goal of administering 100 million COVID-19 vaccines in just over half the time promised.

"Tomorrow, 58 days into our administration we will have met my goal of administering 100 million shots to our fellow Americans," the US president said. "That’s weeks ahead of schedule."

Biden had initially vowed to meet the milestone within his first 100 days.

The US vaccine push has seen roughly 65% of people 65 and older receive at least one dose of the two-dose vaccines from Moderna or Pfizer-BioNTech, Biden said. That is critical in fighting the virus as the age group has accounted for 80% of the US's nearly 540,000 coronavirus-related deaths.

There are currently about 2.5 million shots going in to arms each day, “outpacing the rest of the world significantly,” Biden said.

"If we keep our guard up, stick together and stick with the science we can look forward to a Fourth of July that feels more normal with small groups able to gather for cookouts in backyards and where we begin to declare our independence on independence day from the virus," he added.

The US remains the country with the highest number of confirmed infections and deaths. There have been 29.6 cases and 538,738 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

Daily cases and fatalities have been on the decline since January when they hit all-time highs.