US President-elect Joe Biden on Tuesday vowed a relentless effort to fight Covid-19 the moment he takes office, as he warned that Donald Trump’s vaccination drive was falling dangerously short. “The Trump administration’s plan to distribute vaccines is falling far behind,” Biden said, promising: “I’m going to move Heaven and Earth to get us going in the right direction.”The Trump administration had predicted that 20 million Americans would be vaccinated by the end of December. With less than three days left, some 2.1 million have received the first shot of the vaccine, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Biden, who takes office on January 20, confirmed that he would invoke the Korean War-era Defense Production Act to force private industry to step up vaccine production for the government. “We might not see improvement until we’re well into March as it will take time for our Covid response plan to begin to produce visible progress,” Biden said.

Source: The Hindu December 30, 2020 00:30 UTC