A U.S. Army soldier of the 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division immunizes Jacklina Mendez with the COVID-19 vaccine at Miami Dade College North Campus on March 9, 2021 in North Miami, Florida.
Joe Raedle | Getty images
Biden’s government will allow a wider range of medical workers, including dentists, veterinarians, EMTs and medical students, to administer Covid-19 shots as part of its “wartime” effort to bring the country closer to normal by midsummer. to bring.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is using its authority under the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act to empower more medical professionals and qualified students to take the recordings, the agency said in a statement Friday.
That means dentists, EMTs, midwives, optometrists, paramedics, doctor’s assistants, podiatrists, respiratory therapists and veterinarians can start administering Covid-19 vaccines across the country, according to HHS.
It also authorizes “medical, nursing, and other health-care students in the professions listed under the PREP law with appropriate training and professional supervision to serve as vaccinators,” the statement said.
The move comes after President Joe Biden announced Thursday night that he will lead all US states, tribes and territories to make all adults 18 and older eligible for the coronavirus vaccines by May 1.
The president said in his first prime-time address to the nation on the one-year anniversary of the pandemic that the goal is for Americans to gather in small, personal groups to celebrate the Fourth of July.
“That doesn’t mean everyone gets a chance right away, but May 1 is the date every adult can sign up to take the shot,” Biden’s Covid Tsar Jeff Zients said in a newsletter Friday. “We expect sufficient vaccination for all adults in this country by the end of May.”
The US now administers an average of 2.2 million vaccines a day every week. About 65% of Americans 65 and older are now vaccinated, Zients said. According to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, just over a quarter of adults 18 and older have now received at least one injection of vaccine.
“We are making progress, but there is still more work to be done,” he said.
On Monday, the CDC released its first set of guidelines for people who are fully vaccinated, stating that they can now mingle with other vaccinated people indoors with no masks or social distance.