The Biden administration is again increasing its weekly Covid-19 vaccine supply being sent to states, White House press secretary Jen Psaki announced Tuesday.
During a call with governors, White House Covid coordinator Jeff Zients informed the officials that the administration is “increasing the vaccine supply to 13.5 million doses per week to states,” Psaki said at Tuesday’s briefing, a 57% increase from inauguration levels.
Additionally, Psaki said, the administration will be “doubling the supply to our pharmacy program.” This week, there will be 2 million doses sent to pharmacies across the country, she said, which is expected to expand in the coming weeks.
“Eventually,” Psaki said, more than 40,000 pharmacy locations nationwide will be providing vaccines.
This news comes as the administration is working to rapidly scale vaccinations nearly four weeks after taking office amid some confusion and feedback from governors.
Some more context: CNN’s Kevin Liptak reported Monday that a bipartisan group of governors expressed concern at the Biden administration’s vaccine rollout, writing in a letter to the White House that better coordination is needed between the federal government and states on distributing doses to prevent confusion and duplicative efforts.
The executive committee of the National Governors Association, comprised of Democrats and Republicans, raised alarm over two areas of confusion: first, the numbers publicly reported by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for vaccine distribution; and second, the separate federal distribution systems — including a recently launched program sending vaccines directly to retail pharmacies — they say have caused inefficiencies.