Via Teleconference
11:10 A.M. EDT
MR. ZIENTS: Thank you for joining us for today's briefing. Today, we will get a state-of-the-pandemic update from Dr. Walensky, Dr. Fauci will highlight the latest science, and Dr. Murthy will provide an update on our outreach and education efforts
First, I want to provide a brief update on our accelerating vaccination program. As of today, overall, more than 112 million Americans have received at least one dose, and more than 66 million adult Americans are now fully vaccinated. That's more than one quarter of all adult Americans that are now fully vaccinated. That's up from less than 1 percent when we came into office 11 weeks ago.
This is significant progress. And as you can see in our weekly vaccination progress report, we're accelerating our number of daily shots in arms. Our current seven-day average is now 3 million vaccinations per day, up from 2.9 million last week. Three million vaccinations per day, and this includes the lower-volume days around the Easter holiday.
And as the President announced on Tuesday, all adult Americans will be eligible for vaccination no later than April 19th. That's in 10 days and ahead of the original May 1st timeline.
Our vaccinations program is working, it's accelerating, and we're on track to meet the President's goal of administering 200 million shots in his first 100 days. This is only possible because of our whole-of-government response and the aggressive steps we have taken to get more vaccine supply, more vaccinators in the field, and more places for Americans to get vaccinated. However, we know there's more work to do.
That's why we are accelerating our efforts to get more safe and trusted places for Americans to get vaccinated and meet the President's goal that by April 19th, 90 percent of Americans have a vaccine site within five miles of where they live.
First, on the Federal Retail Pharmacy Program: As we expand to more pharmacies, millions of Americans are able to get their shot at their local pharmacy, the same way they get their flu shot.
Today, there are around 30,000 pharmacies participating in the program. That's an increase of over 70 percent in less than two weeks, and we are on track to meet the President's goal of nearly 40,000 local pharmacies by April 19th.
Second, on federally-run mass vaccination sites: Our mass vaccination sites, located in some of the most underserved neighborhoods in the nation, are run and staffed by FEMA and DOD personnel, in close partnership with state and local officials. And these sites have a combined capacity to administer 110,000 shots per day.
On March 29th, the President challenged us to open at least a dozen new sites by April 19th. We've brought nine online in the last 10 days. And today, we are announcing two new sites in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Third, we are making progress on meeting people where they are. More than 500 community health centers are already receiving vaccine directly from the federal government. These community health centers serve nearly 30 million Americans. Two thirds of community health center patients live at or below the poverty level, and 60 percent are racial and ethnic minorities.
