Incoming Surgeon General Murthy calls for speeding administration of COVID vaccines

The US needs to do more to help speed the administration of Covid-19 vaccines, Vivek Murthy, President Joe Biden's pick for US surgeon general, said on Thursday (local time).

"We cannot take a year in order to get to the critical levels of vaccination that we need in this country... We've got to get there sooner," Murthy told CNN.

CNN reported that Murthy said the Biden administration is working to address the vaccine rollout issues that jurisdictions have been grappling with.

He said the plan includes setting up more vaccination sites, leng on partnerships with pharmacies and finding people who can help administer vaccines.

"We hear often from both local and state leaders that they're worried about the workforce - that we may not have enough people to actually deliver the vaccine to meet the demand," he said.

Biden has said that his administration will deliver 100 million Covid-19 vaccine doses in his first 100 days in office. But the incoming US Surgeon General said that the President aims to surpass his target of delivering 100 million Covid-19 vaccine doses in his first 100 days in office.

"Make no mistake, his goal is not only to meet that, but it's to exceed that," the Indian American Surgeon General said and added that Biden is taking an "even-keeled" approach, taking into account areas where things could go wrong, including the supply of vaccine, channels for distribution and vaccine hesitancy.

The US has reported over 24 million cases and over 410 deaths from the pathogen, as per Johns Hopkins University.

( With inputs from ANI )