President Joe Biden poses for his official portrait Wednesday, March 3, 2021, in the Library of the White House. (Official White House Photo by Adam Schultz)
With new cases of COVID-19 increasing 14% in the past two weeks, President Biden is aiming to convince unvaccinated Americans to get their first dose of the vaccine.
CDC data show that the highly transmissible Delta variant now dominates the U.S., driving close to 52% of COVID-19 cases in the U.S. from June 19 to July 13, according to CDC. Meanwhile, the Alpha variant that first emerged in the U.K. caused 29% of U.S. COVID-19 infections.
“More than 182 million Americans have received at least one shot, including nearly 90% of seniors and 70% of adults over the age of 27,” Biden said in remarks yesterday about the COVID-19 response and the vaccination program.
The U.S. is on the cusp of having 160 million fully vaccinated Americans, he added. Yet, only about three million Americans were vaccinated at the beginning of Biden’s term.
“If you are vaccinated, you’re protected. But if you’re unvaccinated, you’re not, and you’re putting yourself and — more importantly from your perspective — your family and friends at risk,” Biden said.
For the remainder of the summer, Biden said the U.S would reduce reliance on mass vaccination sites while supporting walk-in vaccination in pharmacies, worksites, primary care doctors, pediatrician clinics, mobile clinics and other locations. “Now we need to go from community to community, neighborhood by neighborhood and ofttimes door to door,” Biden said.
To inspire more people to get vaccinated, the government will launch a door-to-door educational initiative.
The U.S. will also launch surge response teams in response to burgeoning COVID-19 hotspots.