President Biden on Thursday announced a new goal of 200 million COVID-19 vaccine shots administered across the U.S. during his first 100 days in office — doubling his previous goal. This comes as the U.S. recorded over 67,000 new coronavirus infections Thursday and nearly 1,600 new deaths from COVID-19. Daily U.S. cases are on par with the peak of last summer’s surge and are once again rising, despite a mass vaccination campaign that’s fully inoculated 14% of the U.S. population.
More than 30 million people across the U.S. have tested positive for COVID-19, though public health officials believe the true number of infections is likely over 100 million, perhaps as much as a third of all U.S. residents. This comes as a new study finds seven out of 10 people hospitalized for COVID-19 had not completely recovered five months after their release.