US administers 300 million COVID-19 shots in 150 days

US President Joe Biden on Friday (local time) announced that America has administered 300 million COVID-19 vaccine shots in 150 days, bit behind the set target of getting 70% of US adults to receive at least one dose of a Covid vaccine by July 4.

"Today, we've passed 300 million shots in 150 days. When I took office, our nation was in crisis. Today, the virus is in retreat and our economy has smashed previous records for job growth. That's just four months, folks," Biden said.

The President also urged unvaccinated Americans to roll up their sleeves to protect themselves against emerging variants of the virus.

During a speech at the White House, Biden called 300 million shots in 150 days "a truly American accomplishment." "Just remember what the situation was like 150 days ago," Biden said.

"We didn't have enough vaccine supply for all Americans. We didn't have the vaccine infrastructure or the people to administer the vaccines or the places where the people could get vaccinated. But we turned it around together by working quickly, aggressively, and equitably," he said.

While touting his administration's national vaccination effort, which has brought COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths down significantly in recent months, the President underlined the need to get other Americans vaccinated.

Concerned over the rising cases of coronavirus where the vaccination rate is lower, he said, "The truth is that deaths and hospitalizations are drastically down in places where people are getting vaccinated. But unfortunately, cases and hospitalizations are not going down in many places, in the lower vaccination rate states. They're actually going up in some places."

According to New York Times, Biden had set the July 4 goal in early May for administering the first dose in 70% of American adults. He also allowed the lifting of virtually all of their pandemic restrictions on business and social distancing in California and New York.

But the time frame is tight. An analysis by The New York Times shows that, if the rate of adult vaccinations continues on the seven-day average, the country will fall just short of Biden's 70 percent goal, with 67.6 per cent of American adults having had their first shot by July 4. As of Friday, 65 per cent of adults have had at least one shot, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

( With inputs from ANI )