US President Joe Biden said his administration would order 100 million more doses each of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna coronavirus vaccines, and at least temporarily speed up shipments to about 10 million doses a week to states.
The purchases would increase total US orders for the two approved vaccines by 50 per cent to about 600 million shots, a senior administration official said.
That supply was expected to be available by the end of the summer and would be enough for 300 million people.
Delivering a minimum of 10 million doses to states would represent about a 16 per cent increase from the current weekly pace, although it may last only three weeks.
The government also plans to give states three weeks' warning before shipments, up from one week now.
“This is going to allow millions more Americans to get vaccinated sooner than previously anticipated. We’ve got a long way to go, though,” Mr Biden said at the White House on Tuesday, flanked by his Covid-19 co-ordinator, Jeff Zients.
Mr Biden cautioned that the vaccination effort was an extremely difficult logistical effort.
“A lot of things can go wrong along the way,” he said.
Mr Biden has pledged to administer 100 million shots in his first 100 days in office, also though it was not immediately clear if the measures announced on Tuesday would help him to more easily meet that goal.
He said “the vaccine programme is in worse shape than we anticipated or expected".
But under the Trump administration, the pace of shots was already accelerating to one million a day.
“I want to be clear — 100 million shots in 100 days is not the end point, it’s just the start,” Mr Biden said.
The effort is also constrained by limits on the number of sites and medical professionals who can give shots.
The senior administration official earlier on Tuesday said the government was working with states to relieve the bottleneck, including by delivering more doses through retail pharmacies.
The White House did not immediately respond to questions about the cost of the new order of doses or where the funding would come from.
Mr Biden has made curbing the pandemic his top priority, while warning that it will drag on for months even with more aggressive action by the government.
He has pleaded with Congress to pass his proposed $1.9 trillion pandemic relief bill, which would include billions of dollars to accelerate vaccinations.
Biden administration officials briefed state governors on the vaccination effort on Tuesday.
Mr Biden said on Monday that he thought the US could reach 1.5 million vaccinations a day and that any person who wanted a shot might be able to have one by spring.
His aides have tempered expectations after that remark, returning to previous projections that most US adults will not be vaccinated until later in the year.
The US is administering about 1.3 million doses a day now. That includes Monday, when only 1.1 million shots were recorded.
The increase in weekly shipments appears to be largely from Moderna.
Government data shows 10.15 million doses that will be made available to states, territories and federal entities for later shipment.
The transition between administrations created confusion about how many shots, if any, the federal government had received, but not yet allocated or shipped to states.
Shortly before he left office, former president Donald Trump’s administration announced it would release second doses of the Pfizer-BioNtech and Moderna shots that had been withheld.
States later complained that they saw no increase in shipments.
The senior administration official said the federal government did not have a significant inventory of shots on hand, beyond what was described as a small reserve for emergencies.
The two vaccines approved so far from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna each require two doses. Approval of a third vaccine would speed up rates.
Johnson & Johnson is expected to soon report results of clinical trials of its coronavirus vaccine, which requires only one shot, and could receive Food and Drug Administration approval soon afterward.
But the official said the Biden administration was not counting on any more authorised vaccines before the summer.
The US recorded 166,000 new coronavirus cases on Monday, down from record highs earlier this month but still well above figures seen throughout the autumn.'
Another 1,757 people died in the US, pushing the country’s death toll to more than 422,000.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Tomb%20Raider%20I%E2%80%93III%20Remastered
%3Cp%3EDeveloper%3A%20Aspyr%0D%3Cbr%3EPublisher%3A%20Aspyr%0D%3Cbr%3EConsole%3A%20Nintendo%20Switch%2C%20PlayStation%204%26amp%3B5%2C%20PC%20and%20Xbox%20series%20X%2FS%0D%3Cbr%3ERating%3A%203%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Results
6.30pm: The Madjani Stakes (PA) Group 3 Dh175,000 (Dirt) 1,900m
Winner: Aatebat Al Khalediah, Fernando Jara (jockey), Ali Rashid Al Raihe (trainer).
7.05pm: Maiden (TB) Dh165,000 (D) 1,400m
Winner: Down On Da Bayou, Royston Ffrench, Salem bin Ghadayer.
7.40pm: Maiden (TB) Dh165,000 (D) 1,600m
Winner: Dubai Avenue, Fernando Jara, Ali Rashid Al Raihe.
8.15pm: Handicap (TB) Dh190,000 (D) 1,200m
Winner: My Catch, Pat Dobbs, Doug Watson.
8.50pm: Dubai Creek Mile (TB) Listed Dh265,000 (D) 1,600m
Winner: Secret Ambition, Tadhg O’Shea, Satish Seemar.
9.25pm: Handicap (TB) Dh190,000 (D) 1,600m
Winner: Golden Goal, Pat Dobbs, Doug Watson.
The%20specs
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EEngine%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%204.4-litre%20twin-turbo%20V8%20with%2048V%20mild%20hybrid%20system%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPower%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E544hp%20at%205%2C500rpm%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETorque%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E750Nm%20at%201%2C800-5%2C000rpm%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETransmission%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E8-speed%20auto%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPrice%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3Efrom%20Dh700%2C000%20(estimate)%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EOn%20sale%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3Elate%20November%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
KILLING OF QASSEM SULEIMANI
Sanchez's club career
2005-2006: Cobreloa
2006-2011 Udinese
2006-2007 Colo-Colo (on loan)
2007-2008 River Plate (on loan)
2011-2014 Barcelona
2014–Present Arsenal
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
Test series fixtures
(All matches start at 2pm UAE)
1st Test Lord's, London from Thursday to Monday
2nd Test Nottingham from July 14-18
3rd Test The Oval, London from July 27-31
4th Test Manchester from August 4-8
Company profile
Name: The Concept
Founders: Yadhushan Mahendran, Maria Sobh and Muhammad Rijal
Based: Abu Dhabi
Founded: 2017
Number of employees: 7
Sector: Aviation and space industry
Funding: $250,000
Future plans: Looking to raise $1 million investment to boost expansion and develop new products
Honeymoonish
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDirector%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Elie%20El%20Samaan%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarring%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ENour%20Al%20Ghandour%2C%20Mahmoud%20Boushahri%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%203%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
More from Aya Iskandarani
Retirement funds heavily invested in equities at a risky time
Pension funds in growing economies in Asia, Latin America and the Middle East have a sharply higher percentage of assets parked in stocks, just at a time when trade tensions threaten to derail markets.
Retirement money managers in 14 geographies now allocate 40 per cent of their assets to equities, an 8 percentage-point climb over the past five years, according to a Mercer survey released last week that canvassed government, corporate and mandatory pension funds with almost $5 trillion in assets under management. That compares with about 25 per cent for pension funds in Europe.
The escalating trade spat between the US and China has heightened fears that stocks are ripe for a downturn. With tensions mounting and outcomes driven more by politics than economics, the S&P 500 Index will be on course for a “full-scale bear market” without Federal Reserve interest-rate cuts, Citigroup’s global macro strategy team said earlier this week.
The increased allocation to equities by growth-market pension funds has come at the expense of fixed-income investments, which declined 11 percentage points over the five years, according to the survey.
Hong Kong funds have the highest exposure to equities at 66 per cent, although that’s been relatively stable over the period. Japan’s equity allocation jumped 13 percentage points while South Korea’s increased 8 percentage points.
The money managers are also directing a higher portion of their funds to assets outside of their home countries. On average, foreign stocks now account for 49 per cent of respondents’ equity investments, 4 percentage points higher than five years ago, while foreign fixed-income exposure climbed 7 percentage points to 23 per cent. Funds in Japan, South Korea, Malaysia and Taiwan are among those seeking greater diversification in stocks and fixed income.
• Bloomberg
WTL%20SCHEDULE
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Defence review at a glance
• Increase defence spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2027 but given “turbulent times it may be necessary to go faster”
• Prioritise a shift towards working with AI and autonomous systems
• Invest in the resilience of military space systems.
• Number of active reserves should be increased by 20%
• More F-35 fighter jets required in the next decade
• New “hybrid Navy” with AUKUS submarines and autonomous vessels
Company%20Profile
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The%20Specs
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Tearful appearance
Chancellor Rachel Reeves set markets on edge as she appeared visibly distraught in parliament on Wednesday.
Legislative setbacks for the government have blown a new hole in the budgetary calculations at a time when the deficit is stubbornly large and the economy is struggling to grow.
She appeared with Keir Starmer on Thursday and the pair embraced, but he had failed to give her his backing as she cried a day earlier.
A spokesman said her upset demeanour was due to a personal matter.
Diriyah%20project%20at%20a%20glance
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EMIRATES'S%20REVISED%20A350%20DEPLOYMENT%20SCHEDULE
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
- Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
- Flexible payment plans from developers
- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
