White House to focus on new vaccination milestones as US is expected to miss July 4 goal - CNN

White House Covid-19 response coordinator Jeff Zients said the country would miss both of the President's goals of having 70% of adult Americans with at least one Covid-19 vaccine shot and 160 million Americans fully vaccinated by July Fourth.

He noted more than 150 million American adults are fully vaccinated, and that the US was on track to get 160 million adults "no later than mid-July."

Zients said Biden's goal was "aspirational," and touted the progress the administration has made in the last several months.

The Biden administration is racing to get more of the eligible population vaccinated to try to prevent the spread of new variants.

Despite all of the progress the nation has made in the last several months to reduce the number of Covid-19 deaths, cases and hospitalizations, the US recently surpassed a grim milestone of 600,000 Covid-19 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

But the White House is moving forward with touting the progress made in fighting the pandemic.

The National Mall will also be open for the traditional July Fourth fireworks.

In addition to focusing on getting Americans vaccinated, the Biden administration also recently announced it would invest more than $3 billion from the American Rescue Plan to accelerate the discovery, development and manufacturing of Covid-19 antiviral medicines.

The move will also serve to counter efforts by Russia and China to use their own state-funded vaccines to expand their global influence.

The Biden administration on Monday also announced its plan to distribute 55 million of the 80 million Covid-19 vaccine doses Biden has pledged to allocate by the end of this month.

For all 80 million doses, the White House has said 75% will be shared through the global vaccination program called Covid-19 Vaccines Global Access, or COVAX, and 25% will be shared directly with countries in need.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated who from the Biden administration will give remarks on Covid-19 on Tuesday.