Biden announces new COVID vaccine goal at press conference: 200M shots in first 100 days

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President Biden announced a new goal Thursday — to administer 200 million coronavirus vaccines by his 100th day in office.

The president, in December, set a goal to get 100 million shots to Americans by his 100th day in office, which his administration met last week.

"We met that goal last week — by day 58," Biden said. "Today, I am making a second goal. By my 100th day in office, we will have administered 200 million shots."

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"That's right," he said. "200 million shots in 100 days."

Biden added: "I know it's ambitious, and twice our original goal. But no other country in the world has come close — not even close to what we are doing — and I believe we can do it."

Earlier this month, Biden said he would order 100 million more COVID-19 vaccine doses from Johnson & Johnson, in addition to the more than 200 million doses of Pfizer and Moderna the administration ordered in February.

President Joe Biden made his first press conference on Thursday from the White House  (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

The White House coronavirus task force said they are prepared to use the additional doses to inoculate more than 300 million people by the end of July.

But approximately 182 million Americans have yet to receive their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, and despite the White House's promise to vaccinate them first, the administration is already making plans to send doses to neighbors in Canada and Mexico.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki announced last week that the U.S. plans to send 2.5 million doses of AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine to Mexico, and 1.5 million doses to Canada.

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The Biden administration has said that once U.S. citizens are vaccinated, the next step is ensuring Canada and Mexico are able to manage the pandemic so the borders can reopen. That could mean more vaccines for Canada faster and a shorter wait for second doses.

The loan deal will not affect President Biden's goal of having all adult Americans eligible for a vaccine by May 1 and will not reduce the supply of available vaccine in the U.S., a senior administration official told Reuters.

Although Canada's economy is tightly interconnected with the U.S., Washington hasn't allowed the hundreds of millions of vaccine doses made in America to be exported until now, and Canada has had to turn to Europe and Asia.

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The AstraZeneca vaccine has not been authorized for use in the U.S. but has been by the World Health Organization. Tens of millions of doses have been stockpiled in the U.S. should it receive emergency use authorization, sparking an international outcry that lifesaving doses were being withheld when they could be used elsewhere.

But AstraZeneca, in a statement regarding their U.S. plans on Monday, said they plan to submit their EUA application to the FDA in "the first half of April." 

"Should it be approved, we can deliver 30 million doses immediately upon EUA, and additional doses to total up to 50M in the weeks to follow," they said. "Thereafter, we plan to provide 15-20M doses per month."