Biden announces US hit 100m COVID-19 vaccine doses goal in 58 days

By Brittany Roston/March 20, 2021 6:15 am EST

President Biden has announced that the United States has reached — and now exceeded — 100 million administered COVID-19 vaccine doses only 58 days after he took office. This is a major milestone for the new president who had touted a goal of 100 million vaccine doses in his first 100 days in office and comes on the brink of unrestricted access to the vaccine in a number of states.READ: Biden says US will have enough COVID-19 vaccines for everyone by May

When President Biden first revealed the 100m vaccine doses in 100 days goal, many were skeptical that the US would manage to ramp up its vaccination program so significantly in such a short period of time. Now, not only has the nation managed to do this, but it reached the president's goal in a bit over half the amount of time anticipated.

According to the CDC's COVID-19 vaccine tracker, the United States had administered more than 118 million vaccine doses as of 9AM EST on March 19. The rollout was initially limited to the highest-risk groups, including the elderly, people with certain serious diseases, and public workers, including firefighters, doctors, and essential employees.

Before I took office, I set an ambitious goal of administering 100 million shots in my first 100 days as president.

I'm proud to say that we'll reach that goal tomorrow, just 58 days in.

— President Biden (@POTUS) March 19, 2021

In the most recent update on the timeline, President Biden had said that open COVID-19 vaccine availability to the general public needed to start by May 1. A number of states are planning to beat that date by a significant number of days — Ohio, for example, will start its open availability on March 29 and Michigan will follow days later by April 5.

The FDA has authorized three COVID-19 vaccines for distribution in the US: Pfizer, Moderna, and, most recently, Johnson & Johnson's single-dose vaccine. Many companies and organizations are working with healthcare professionals and pharmacies to help administer the vaccine. The public can get vaccinated at places like CVS and Walgreens, and many states are setting up mass vaccination sites in big cities in preparation for open availability.