Photographer: Cheney Orr / Bloomberg
Photographer: Cheney Orr / Bloomberg
The Biden government on Friday announced plans to use the Defense Production Act to boost supplies for the production of Pfizer Inc.’s Covid-19 vaccine and to increase the availability of virus testing at home.
Priority ratings give Pfizer access to raw materials for the first time, enabling the company to increase production and meet its delivery goals, Tim Manning, Covid-19 supply coordinator, said at a White House briefing.
Six new companies will also increase production of home tests to make more than 60 million such tests available by the summer, Manning said.
“This amounts to the first set of actions under the Defense Production Act that we have taken under the Biden government in recent weeks,” Manning said. The Trump administration had used the DPA many times during its pandemic response.
The announcements also include news of one investments in domestic production of surgical gloves and plans to send 1,000 soldiers to support the state’s vaccination sites.
Read more: The law that Biden says he would use more to fight viruses: QuickTake
– With the help of Shira Stein