President Joe Biden could hit his goal of administering 100 million vaccine doses within the first 100 days of office on Thursday, according to data compiled by NBC News – which would put him nearly six weeks ahead of schedule.
As of Wednesday, the United States had administered more than 96 million vaccine doses under Mr Biden, and the country was averaging about 2 to 2.5 million doses per day.
At the start of his presidency, Mr Biden announced the goal of administering 100 million vaccine doses within 100 days in an effort to get Americans vaccinated as Covid-19 continued to circulate.
But some health experts criticised the goal as "too low" given that the country was administering almost one million vaccine doses per day under former President Donald Trump.
Mr Biden said 100 million was just the minimum and his administration was working to far exceed that goal, adding that he thought they could hit 150 million doses within 100 days.
His 100th day of office will be on 30 April, meaning he could hit the goal of 100 million vaccine doses more than one month ahead of schedule.
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On Monday, Mr Biden said his administration would likely hit the goal in the next 10 days.
"It's here, sooner than many ever thought possible," Mr Biden said at the White House. "Over the next 10 days, we will reach two giant goals: one hundred million shots in people's arms and a hundred million checks in people's pockets."
The Biden administration has not yet indicated if there would be a special event to mark the 100 millionth vaccine dose. Previously, the White House held an event to celebrate when the administration hit 50 million vaccine doses administered.
As of Thursday, the US has administered more than 115 million vaccine doses since December, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). To date, 12.3 per cent of the US population was fully vaccinated for Covid-19.
Mr Biden said another goal was to have vaccine eligibility opened up in every state by 1 May that would allow any American adult to access the jab.
Although the US was vaccinating the public at a high rate, with the country hitting a record 2.4 million doses administered in a single day last week, health officials are still struggling with vaccine hesitancy.
Republicans were more likely than Democrats to express hesitancy about receiving a vaccine, according to recent polling.
The rise of new variants has also caused concern among health officials, at a time when more and more states are rolling back their coronavirus guidelines as more of the public receives a vaccine.
Dr Anthony Fauci, the nation's leading infectious disease expert, has implored state officials to wait longer before they start to roll back guidelines in an effort to prevent another surge in the pandemic.
"There are some states now that are pulling back a bit more prematurely than they should on the public health measures," Dr Fauci said on NBC’s Today on Thursday morning.
"It's a race between the vaccine and the virus," he added.
