The White House plans to inform states on Tuesday afternoon that vaccine allocations will increase by 1.5 million doses next week, to reach 10 million doses on an increased release of Moderna vaccines.
This increase does not reflect on the overall amount that Moderna will deliver to the federal government in the first three months of the year.
- As of Tuesday, Moderna says 30.4 million doses have been supplied to the U.S.
- About 10.1 million Moderna doses have been administered
- Moderna is on track to deliver 100 million doses by March, and 200 million by the end of June
- Pfizer announces an increase in doses from 100 million to 120 million by the end of March.
- The increase is not due to an increase in production, but by extracting 6 doses instead of 5 from each vial of vaccine.
This is a formality announced as many pharmacies have been squeezing out the extra dose from their allocated vials. Some pharmacists have said that six doses cannot always reliably be extracted from the vials, even with special syringes that the federal government is now providing. This could add to the already complicated rollout process.
Moderna and Pfizer are ramping up production and are expected to together deliver between 12 and 18 million doses a week by the end of March. Biden remarked on Monday that the U.S. aims to administer 1.5 million doses per day — or 10.5 million per week.
According to data collected by the CDC, only 53% of the doses already distributed have been administered.
