The Biden administration is increasing weekly deliveries of COVID-19 vaccines to states and territories by 16% next week and plans to give governors more advance notice of upcoming allocations of the shots, according to multiple state officials released on Tuesday. the White House have been notified.
The supply of vaccines to states, territories and Indian tribes will increase to 10 million doses next week, up from 8.6 million and continue at that rate for the next three weeks. Drivers are given a three-week forecast of their vaccine allocations, giving them more time to prepare vaccine distribution plans.
President Biden is expected to announce the changes to the country’s vaccine distribution plan at an event at the White House later Tuesday.
The federal government plans to buy 200 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines – 100 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine and 100 million doses of the Moderna vaccine, the participants said. Next week, the administration will send 5.7 million doses of the Moderna vaccine and 4.3 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine.
This purchase increases the federal government’s overall vaccine order from 400 million current doses to 600 million doses, which could allow the federal government to vaccinate 300 million Americans, a senior official from the Biden administration told CBS News Tuesday.
The newly purchased doses – which will be produced “over the summer” – will not go any higher on the timeline for all Americans to get a vaccine if they want to, from now on.
“It’s going to be several months before we’re in a position to actually tell Americans it’s ‘open season,’ as Dr. Fauci calls it, to sign up for vaccinations,” said the senior official. said. “But with today’s announcement, we have now bought enough vaccine to vaccinate 300 million Americans, which is good news.”
Governors of both parties were briefed on Tuesday afternoon by Jeff Zients, coordinator of the Biden government’s COVID response, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Rochelle Walensky, and Army General Gustave F. Perna, who oversees Operation Warp Speed, the national vaccine distribution program. launched by the Trump administration.
Representatives of multiple directors in both parties shared information from the call with CBS News.
Multiple government officials who worked for Democratic and Republican governors expressed relief at the increased supply of vaccines and the decision to give state leaders a three-week schedule.
“Looking three weeks ahead is a lifetime” when it comes to planning ahead, said one call-out caller working for a Republican governor.
Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont called the increase in supply and the new schedule “very helpful.”
“The offering has been a bit of a black box and is now going back a month or so,” Lamont said according to the audio of the CBS News call. “We couldn’t plan more than a week in advance.”
But some governors on the call complained that the CDC’s current system of tracking vaccine distribution creates unfair comparisons between the states and territories.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, among others, told Wallensky that the CDC tracking system is “ misleading ” because some states keep second doses of the vaccine in reserve for people who have received their first injection, while other states choose to collect doses from to share when they receive them.
“I think it’s misleading to count that second dose in the equation,” Cuomo said during the phone call.
“Assurance is very valuable to us,” Cuomo also said, according to the audio of the call. “We never got everything we needed during this whole Covid situation – not through the federal government or through the private sector. But just having facts and certainty is a really big plus.”
Other governors asked if the CDC could better explain the distribution of a state’s vaccination allocation to the public – how much is considered a “first dose” and how much is considered a second dose. In doing so, these governors stressed, it would help temper and educate the public about how quickly the shots are being distributed.
Biden government officials also told the governors that the federal government plans to continue distributing the vaccine per capita rather than accelerating distribution to states with faster, more efficient plans – an idea that has emerged in recent weeks. of the Trump administration had been mooted. The decision to maintain the per capita distribution is seen as a coup d’etat for smaller states concerned about vaccinating their populations.
State officials also said they are impressed by the seriousness of the Biden government’s early contact with governors, even during the transfer of power.
“These calls have been very cordial during both administrations,” said one attendee, “but my boss is grateful for how serious the Biden administration has been in getting in touch.”
Michael Kaplan contributed to this report.