US President Joe Biden is set to
announce his plan on Wednesday to acquire an extra 100 million Johnson &
Johnson COVID-19 vaccine doses in an attempt to give the United States a safe
amount as surplus, if by any chance other vaccine-makers run into problems in
manufacturing the shots, reported AFP.

The news agency further reported an
official from the Biden administration as saying that the President would be making
the announcement during a meeting with J&J and Merck executives.

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The latter is working with Johnson &
Johnson to co-produce the vaccine.

After the Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) granted emergency use authorisation to the vaccine
earlier, Biden had noted that by the end of May, the country would be on track
to gather enough vaccine doses to inoculate every adult in the country.

So far, the United States has in its
hands 300 million doses of vaccines made by Pfizer and Moderna, and another 100
million from Johnson & Johnson.

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The intention behind the doubling up
of the later acquisition was to keep itself stocked up in case of production issues
arising from the two main providers.

United States has one of the worst
caseloads on earth right now, with more than 500,000 already dead in the
country due to COVID-19.