President Joe Biden announced Friday that 300 million coronavirus vaccines have been administered across the country.
“We’re heading into a very different summer from last year,” he said during a news conference. “A bright summer, frankly, a summer of joy.”
More than 175 million Americans have received at least one COVID-19 shot, and 26 states, along with Washington, D.C., have fully vaccinated 50% or more of their adult populations, Biden said.
“Nationwide, we are at the lowest number of daily deaths since the first days of the pandemic,” the president noted.
Biden also reiterated a commitment to closing the racial gaps in vaccination rates and warned of continued coronavirus variants.
On Thursday, the Biden administration also announced it would invest $3.2 billion to speed the development of antiviral pills that could treat COVID-19 and other viruses.
More than 600,000 Americans have died from the virus so far.
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This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.
