Biden Administration Looks to Buy 200 Million More COVID-19 Vaccine Doses

The Biden administration announced Tuesday that it is working to purchase an additional 200 million doses of the two coronavirus vaccines that have been authorized for emergency use in the United States.

The administration hopes to have enough vaccine supply for almost the entire U.S. population by the end of summer.

The purchase of 100 million doses each of Moderna and Pfizer’s vaccines would grow the available supply by 50 percent to a total of 600 million doses by summer — enough to fully vaccinate 300 million people as both vaccinations require two doses.

A senior administration official reportedly told the Washington Post that the additional doses would be delivered this summer.

President Biden on Monday increased his administration’s vaccine distribution goal to 1.5 million shots administered per day, up from his earlier goal of 1 million shots per day. Health care workers were already administering more than a million shots as of Wednesday.