All US adults to be eligible for Covid vaccination from May 1, Biden vows

Washington, Mar 11 (efe-epa).- In his first prime-time national address as president of the United States, Joe Biden said Thursday, on the first anniversary of the country’s Covid-19 epidemic, that by May.1 all adults will be eligible for vaccination, and the country should have regained some normality by early July.

In his televised speech, the president announced that he will order all states, territories and tribes to make all adults eligible for vaccination by May 1.

The measure “doesn’t mean everyone’s going to have that shot immediately, but it means you’ll be able to get in line beginning May 1,” he warned.

The president already said days ago that, thanks to the contracts with the three pharmaceutical companies with approved vaccines, the government will have received enough doses by the end of May to vaccinate its entire adult population.

At the moment, only Alaska has made the decision to open vaccination to all its residents of legal age, while the rest of the states continue to limit theirs to those over 60 or 65 years, people with pre-existing diseases and priority groups such as teachers.

With this positive outlook, Biden announced that by July 4, Independence Day, the US will have regained some normality.

“There’s a good chance you, your families and friends, will be able to get together in your backyard or in your neighborhood and have a cookout or a barbecue and celebrate Independence Day,” he said. “That doesn’t mean large events with lots of people together, but it does mean small groups will be able to get together.”

“After this long hard year, that will make this Independence Day something truly special, where we not only mark our independence as a nation, but we begin to mark our independence from this virus.”

He also said that by Mar. 21, 100 million vaccine doses will have been administered as promised.

“I said I intended to get 100 million shots in people’s arms in my first 100 days in office,” Biden said in his speech to the nation.

“Tonight, I can say we’re not only going to meet that goal, we’re going to beat that goal. Because we’re actually on track to reach this goal of 100 million shots in arms on my 60th day in office.”

So far, about 64.1 million people (19 percent of the population) have received at least the first dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna or Johnson & Johnson vaccine, and 33.9 million (10 percent) are already fully inoculated. EFE-EPA

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