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| - President Joe Biden will tout rapid US progress in rolling out mass Covid-19 vaccinations Thursday, with his original target of delivering 100 million shots in 100 days set to be surpassed in just over half that time. Biden was set to give a White House speech to "discuss our progress toward our 100 million shots in 100 days goal," an administration official said. When Biden came into office on January 20, the program to stop the coronavirus pandemic through national vaccination was only just getting going. The Democrat's 100 days goal was initially met with skepticism but quickly proved easily reachable, with well over a million vaccines a day being administered. Currently somewhere between two and three million vaccine shots are now being given each day and Biden said last week that he expects to hit his original target within 60 days -- meaning this week. The accelerating vaccine rollout is dovetailing with falling infection rates, leading to optimism that the world's biggest economy is headed for a powerful rebound after more than half a million US Covid deaths. However, with Europe in the grip of a new surge in Covid-19 cases and vaccine programs stumbling, US health officials continue to sound warnings. Former president Donald Trump only this week called directly on his supporters, who form one of the biggest groups of vaccine opponents, to embrace the shots, saying "it's a great vaccine, it's a safe vaccine." sms/wat
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