On Monday, US President Joe Biden said that with the mass vaccination drive in full swing, the US should achieve herd immunity from COVID-19 by summer. 

He said in a White House press conference, “I feel confident that by summer we’re going to be well on our way to heading toward herd immunity.”

Biden stated that the milestone would be within reach once the inoculation drive is available to the wider public while estimating that the goal can be achieved within a few months. 

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He said, “I think we’ll be able to do that this spring, but it’s going to be a logistical challenge that exceeds anything we’ve ever tried in this country.” 

Biden has reaffirmed numerous times that he aims for 100 million vaccines administered within his first 100 days in office.

The inoculation drive in the US had picked up a significant pace in the last week and has been administering about a million doses on a daily basis, a goal which was being called ‘far-fetched’ by many.  He said in a statement, “I think we may be able to get that too… 1.5 million a day, rather than 1 million a day. But we have to meet that goal of a million a day”, reported Associated Press.

After this, the country will “move in the direction where we are well beyond that in the next 100 days, so we can get to the point where we reach herd immunity.”

“I feel good about where we’re going and I think we can get it done,” Biden said.

The announcement comes just days after the US President gave the people of the US a reality check about the COVID-19 situation. He said, “Things are going to get worse before they get better. But I can assure you, help is on the way”. The statement was made while the President signed 10 executive orders which were put in place to remedy the impact of the pandemic in the US. 

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A few days later in a statement, he said, “The virus is surging. We’re 400,000 dead, expected to reach well over 6,00,000. Families are going hungry. People are at risk of being evicted. Job losses are mounting again. We need to act.”

According to the COVID-19 tracker maintained by Johns Hopkins University, a total of 2,52,46,713 positive cases have been recorded in the US with a death toll of 4,20,723.