President Joe Biden is doubling his original COVID-19 vaccination goal to 200 million shots in arms by his 100th day in office — which is just over a month away.
When he entered office, Biden said his goal was 100 million vaccine doses in 100 days — a target many observers thought was not ambitious enough. According to federal health officials, that 100 million figure was hit on Biden's 58th day in office.
About 2.5 million vaccine doses are being administered every day in the United States.
He detailed his new goal Thursday, during the first news conference of his presidency.
Biden is also sticking to a goal of having a majority of K-8 schools open full time — in person, five days a week — by that same 100-day mark. So far, he said, roughly half of them are open full time.
"Help is here," Biden said, and "hope is on the way."
Biden touted his early successes, including work to expand the COVID-19 vaccination program and the $1.9 trillion relief package enacted by Congress.
His remarks come a little over halfway through his first 100 days in office — a typical benchmark used to measure a president's early progress.
Before this news conference, Biden had taken questions intermittently from reporters, but nothing at this length.
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