COVID-19 vaccinations will rapidly increase nationwide over the next few weeks after experiencing a slow start, Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams said Wednesday.
"We're now approaching 500,000 vaccinations per day," Adams said on ABC News' "Good Morning America." "We're going to make sure we're putting vaccines and supplies where the demand actually is. And you're going to continue to see these rates ramp up."
Initially, Operation Warp Speed, the White House's vaccination initiative, had promised 20 million vaccines would have been given by the end of 2020, but according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, only 4.8 million had been vaccinated as of Tuesday morning.
"It is by no means as good as we would want it to be, but I want the American people to keep this in perspective," said Adams. "(It is the) most difficult vaccine rollout in history. It’s ramping up and you'll see things rapidly increase over the next couple of weeks."
He added that it's always been an issue for a vaccine to be administered at the local level, but the government will continue to work for states to encourage public and private partnership, including with drugstore giants CVS and Walgreens and with public supermarkets in some states, such as Florida.
"(We will) make sure we're putting vaccines and supplies where the demand actually is," said Adams.
Meanwhile, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious-disease expert, told ABC on Sunday that President-elect Joe Biden's pledge that 100 million shots will be administered within his first 100 days in office can be achieved.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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