Covid: Joe Biden announces all US adults will be offered coronavirus vaccine by April 19

  • Video report by ITV News US Correspondent Emma Murphy


President Joe Biden has announced all US adults will be offered a coronavirus vaccine by April 1 - two weeks before his initial deadline of May 1.

The country is expanding eligibility beyond priority groups and the the president annouced plans to offer every adult in the US a jab by mid April.

President Biden also declared that 150 million doses have been put into people’s arms since his inauguration on January 20, with the current vaccination rate of around three million jabs a day.

The USA's vaccine rollout has been among the best in the world. Credit: AP

That puts the president well on track to meet his new goal of 200 million shots administered by April 30 - his 100th day in office.

His original goal had been 100 million shots in arms by the end of his first 100 days.

Bringing forward the deadline will be mostly symbolic as many states have already begun bringing theirs forward from the original May 1 goal.

There is also expected to be a surge of new vaccines delivered across the country this week.

Around a dozen states have already made the vaccine available to anyone over the age of 16.


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The White House said on Monday that nearly one in three Americans and more than 40% of adults have received at least one dose, while nearly one in four adults is fully vaccinated.

Among older people, 75% have now received at least one dose, and more than 55% of them are fully vaccinated.

America's vaccine rollout is among the best in the world, behind only Israel and the UK among developed nations when it comes to first doses.

In the UK, 60% of UK adults have had at least one dose of the Covid vaccine, while 10.4% have had both.

When it comes to full vaccination only Israel is ahead of the US.