US President Joe Biden on Friday marked the United States administering 300 million COVID-19 shots in 150 days and urged unvaccinated Americans to get a vaccine in order to protect themselves against emerging variants of the virus.
In a speech at the White House, Biden called 300 million shots in 150 days "a truly American accomplishment."
"Just remember what the situation was like 150 days ago," Biden said, according to CNN. "We didn't have enough vaccine supply for all Americans. We didn't have the vaccine infrastructure or the people to administer the vaccines or the places where the people could get vaccinated. But we turned it around together by working quickly, aggressively and equitably."
While touting his administration's national vaccination effort, the President also emphasized the need to get other Americans vaccinated.
"The truth is that deaths and hospitalizations are drastically down in places where people are getting vaccinated," Biden said. "But unfortunately, cases and hospitalizations are not going down in many places, in the lower vaccination rate states. They're actually going up in some places."
He specifically warned about the prevalence of the Delta coronavirus variant, which was first identified in India, and its potential effects on unvaccinated individuals.
"The new variant will leave unvaccinated people even more vulnerable than they (were) a month ago. This is a serious concern, especially because of what experts are calling the Delta variant. It's a variant that is more easily transmissible, potentially deadlier, and particularly dangerous for young people," said Biden.
"The best way to protect yourself from these variants are to get fully vaccinated," he added.
Asked whether the Delta variant could send the US back into lockdown, the President said no, but added that it could lead to more deaths among unvaccinated individuals.
Biden has set a goal of having 70% of US adults get at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and having 160 million US adults fully vaccinated by the Fourth of July. Currently 65% of US adults have had at least one shot, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and about 147.8 million Americans are fully vaccinated.
Only 14 states have reached Biden's goal, data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show.
(Arutz Sheva’s North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)