Azar on Tuesday also announced that Operation Warp Speed will no longer hold back half of vaccine supplies, a move it took to ensure that when people need to get their booster dose, there was enough available to give them a second, matching vaccine in the timeframe required - 21 days for the vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, and 28 days for the one developed by Moderna.
Conditional use of the Sinovac Biotech Ltd. vaccine is scheduled to be rolled out in the coming months with health care workers, civil servants and other at-risk populations prioritized first.
Indonesia's highest Islamic body, the Indonesian Ulema Council, announced last week that the COVID-19 vaccine is halal, or fit for consumption by Muslims, further paving the way for use and distribution in the world's most populous Muslim country.
Indonesia began its coronavirus vaccination drive on Wednesday, with President Joko Widodo receiving his first shot of a Chinese-produced vaccine.
Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar announced a series of major changes to increase supply of vaccines and expand the age groups eligible as well as locations where people can get shots.
Vaccines were a chance to redeem failures in the USA coronavirus response.
"This vaccination is important to break the chain of coronavirus infections and to give health protection to all of us, and safety and security for all Indonesians", Jokowi told reporters, adding that it would "also help speed up the economic recovery".
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Even the violence has been pretty subdued even though some rather violent things were actually happening in some films. Ryan is a very busy, very successful actor.
Texas and Florida have been vaccinating people over the age of 65 since late last month, although reports from those states have indicated that demand has far outstripped appointments.
In addition to Sinovac vaccine, the government has secured supply commitment from British pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca and US-based vaccine producer Novavax, each will deliver 50 million doses.
"Michigan and states across the country remain ready to get more shots in arms, which is why the Trump Administration's decision to grant our request and release millions of doses of the vaccine is so crucial", Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer said in a written statement.
"If you are not using vaccines that you have the right to, then we should be rebalancing to states that are using that vaccine", Azar said at news conference. Even if those doses can be manufactured and shipped seamlessly, that's only enough for 100 million people, given that the now authorized vaccines require two doses each.
Up to this point the federal government has merely asked states to follow guidelines established by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) via a panel that provides them with advice known as the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). "The good news is that 700,000 people are getting vaccinated every single day".
Although Azar said the shift in strategy was a natural evolution of the Trump administration's efforts, as recently as Friday he had raised questions about whether Biden's call to accelerate supplies was prudent. "We're going to hit 1 million people, and we need to continue to pick up that pace".
