President Joe Biden on Wednesday is expected to urge all U.S. employers to give their workers paid time off to get their COVID-19 vaccine shots, while also saying his administration looks set to achieve its goal of administering 200 million doses in his first 100 days in office.
Biden announced that target a month ago, after his administration attained an earlier goal of getting 100 million shots in arms well before his 100th day on the job.
“President Biden will announce that he expects we will meet his goal of 200 million shots administered in 100 days on Thursday,”
the White House said in a statement.
In addition, he will be “calling on every employer in America to offer full pay to their employees for any time off needed to get vaccinated and for any time it takes to recover from the after-effects of vaccination,” the statement said. “He will announce a paid leave tax credit that will offset the cost for employers with fewer than 500 employees to provide full pay for any time their employees need to get a COVID-19 vaccination or recover from that vaccination.”
The president’s speech on the COVID response and vaccinations is slated to come around 1:15 p.m. Eastern.
The U.S. has administered 213 million vaccine doses as of Wednesday, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tally that includes shots from early January and late last year. Biden, meanwhile, is counting the shots administered from his Jan. 20 inauguration.
Forty percent of the U.S. population has received at least one dose, and 51% of adults have gotten at least one shot, according to the CDC. Everyone in U.S. aged 16 and over became eligible for vaccination on Monday.
Read more: U.S. COVID-19 vaccine program meets key goal, but India cases and Brazil deaths worry experts
And see: Global tally of COVID-19 cases top 142 million as India’s surge raises the alarm
Biden’s 100th day in office will come next week — on April 29 if counting from Jan. 20, or April 30 if counting full days in office.
The main U.S. stock gauges
SPX,
+0.57%
DJIA,
+0.64%
COMP,
+0.66%
traded higher Wednesday, despite concerns that rising COVID-19 infections around the world could slow economic growth.
