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US orders another 200 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine

US orders another 200 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine
An Wentzel
By An Wentzel
27 Jan 2021
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US President Joe Biden has announced that the US has ordered another 200 million doses of the Covid-19 vaccine, which are expected to be in hand by May or June and will allow for all Americans to be vaccinated by August or September, at the latest.

The Biden administration hopes to have about 300 million Americans vaccinated by summer. Making the announcement on Tuesday, 26 January, the US president said the orders are expected to be confirmed shortly and arrive by May or June.

Biden said “we will soon be able to confirm the purchase of an additional million doses for each of the two authorised vaccines... not in hand yet, but ordered. We expect these additional 200 million doses to be delivered this summer.”



The weekly vaccine allocation to states, tribes and territories is also being increased and over the next three weeks they will be receiving a minimum of 10 million doses.

The US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said at the weekend that by Saturday, 23 January it had administered just more than 20,5 million doses and distributed 41,411,550. Late on Tuesday night, Worldometers showed the US has just more than 26 million cases and 435,452 deaths.

While the US is trying to secure the extra vaccines, the European Union (EU) is reading the riot act to vaccine producers in the region, as they are experiencing shortages and “insufficient explanations”, according to European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety Stella Kyriakides. She made the comment after meeting AstraZeneca on Monday. AstraZeneca and Pfizer have vaccine-manufacturing facilities in Europe.

Kyriakides also said a detailed plan was requested from AstraZeneca and another meeting is planned for Wednesday, 27 January.




The US Senate also voted on Tuesday to uphold the constitutionality of the impeachment trial of Donald Trump, after the article of impeachment was walked to the Senate on Monday. There was also a flurry of concern around the man who is set to preside over the impeachment trial, Senator Patrick Leahy, who was admitted to hospital briefly late on Tuesday.  

The 80-year-old, who is third behind the vice-president and speaker of the House in the line of presidential succession, was taken to hospital “out of an abundance of caution”, said his spokesperson, David Carle. Leahy, the most senior and longest-serving Democratic Senator and President Pro Tempore, was tested and had a thorough medical exam before being discharged. Carle said Leahy, who had earlier that day sworn in the other senators as jurors in the impeachment trial, was looking forward to “getting back to work”.

Republicans are overwhelmingly ready to dismiss the charge of incitement of insurrection. The Senate defeated a motion on Tuesday brought by Republican Senator Rand Paul challenging the constitutionality of  impeaching a former president. This victory may turn out to be merely a symbolic win as 45 out of 50 Republicans voted to stop the trial before it starts.

It is also highly unlikely that the 17 Republican votes needed to secure a conviction will materialise, meaning Trump will in all likelihood not be convicted. According to Paul: “Democrats are wasting the nation’s time on a partisan vendetta against a man no longer in office.”

Preparations for the February trial are under way for both the House and Trump’s legal team.

Following the Capitol riot on 6 January, 25,000 National Guard troops were deployed to the Capitol complex ahead of and for the presidential inauguration on 21 January and covering the impeachment vote on 13 January.

There are still thousands of troops at the complex, following last week’s outrage when hundreds of soldiers were reportedly told by senior Capitol police to sleep in a parking garage. This was resolved late on Friday, with the Guard and Capitol Police saying they had worked together to find alternative sleeping arrangements. The Capitol Police interim chief said they had not told the soldiers to leave.

Last Thursday there were still more than 10,000 troops at the Capitol and fears of violent demonstrations around the impeachment trial have led to lawmakers requesting that about 5,000 remain stationed there until March. Or at least until 4 March, a big day on the QAnon calendar, when it is believed that Biden will be deposed and Trump will be reinstated as president. It was also the starting date, from 1789 to 1933, of a new Congressional term and also when a new president would deliver his inaugural address. DM

An Wentzel is Night Editor and specialist reporter for Daily Maverick. She went to the US to visit family as the pandemic struck and is currently marooned in the land of the “free”.

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