Biden vows to make vaccines available for ‘every single American’ by end of July

President insisted country would have 600 million doses by summer

Joe Biden has vowed to ensure that vaccines will be made “available” to “every single American” who wants one across the US before the end of July.

At the CNN town hall event in Wisconsin on Tuesday, Mr Biden was questioned by host Anderson Cooper about when people can expect to receive their vaccines.

“By the end of July this year,” he said, adding: “We came into office, there was only 50 million doses available.”

“We have now, by the end of July we’ll have over 600 million doses, enough to vaccinate every single American,” Mr Biden said.

Mr Cooper clarified whether the president meant that vaccines will be “available” or “that people will have been able to actually get them.”

Mr Biden clarified that he meant the doses would “be available” by the end of July.

More than 27.8 million people have been infected with the novel coronavirus across the US since the pandemic gripped the country, leading to the deaths of over 488,000.

Case numbers have dropped across the country in recent weeks, but the spread of the more transmissible UK variant, which has been detected in 42 states, raises questions about how the pandemic will continue to unfold.

Mr Biden has in the past criticised the work of the past administration on coronavirus vaccines, having said on 8 February that Donald Trump left the situation “more dire than we had thought.”

"We thought they had indicated there was a lot more vaccine available. And [that] didn’t turn out to be the case. So that’s why we’ve ramped up every way we can," he said in his first TV interview as president.

The vaccination effort across the country has initially kicked off to a slower start than expected amid issues with distribution and supply.

The US Senate passed a budget resolution on 5 February in a step that sets up the path for Democrats to pass Mr Biden’s sweeping $1.9trn Covid-19 relief package.

The funding includes $400bn to directly combat coronavirus, accelerate vaccinations, and reopen closed schools.

At the beginning of his presidency, Mr Biden also vowed to move “heaven and earth” to administer 100 million vaccines to Americans in 100 days.

So far, since the vaccination programme began on 14 December, over 55 million doses have been administered, according to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.