US government expects ‘widespread delays’ in Covid-19 vaccine shipments due to severe weather

Severe weather around the United States will delay Covid-19 vaccine deliveries in the coming days, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday.

“Shipping partners are working to deliver vaccine where possible, contingent on local conditions, but the adverse weather is expected to continue to impact shipments out of the FedEx facility in Memphis, Tenn., as well as the UPS facility in Louisville, Ken., which serve as vaccine shipping hubs for multiple states,” CDC spokesperson Kristen Nordlund said in a statement.

“CDC and federal partners are working closely with the jurisdictions, as well as manufacturing and shipping partners, to assess weather conditions and help mitigate potential delivery delays and cancellations,” she said.

President Joe Biden said Tuesday night that Covid-19 vaccines will be widely available to the general public by the end of July. During the first town hall of his presidency, Biden offered some hope — with a specific promise against which he will be judged — for 600 million doses of vaccine to be available by the end of July.

“What’s going to happen is it’s going to continue to increase as we move along. We will have reached 400 million doses by the end of May and 600 million by the end of July,” Biden told CNN’s Anderson Cooper in Milwaukee.

Biden predicted that life could be mostly back to normal by Christmas.