U.S. President Joe Biden discusses the administration's response to coronavirus disease, COVID-19, and the vaccination program in brief remarks at the State Dining Room of The White House in Washington on June 18, 2021.A White House official stated that President Joe Biden will push Tuesday for all eligible Americans get Covid vaccinations. He stressed the importance of protecting themselves against the highly transmissible Delta variant.Biden will discuss how his administration is focusing its efforts on increasing vaccination availability in settings such as doctors' offices, two days after he failed to meet his Covid vaccination goal for Fourth of July.Biden will also mention that his team is intensifying efforts to get vaccines for pediatricians and other child-health-care providers with the goal to get more adolescents aged 12-18 inoculated before heading back to school in fall. Biden did not name the official prior to his announcement.This team will also work to increase mobile clinic efforts. They will also improve door-to-door outreach efforts in order to provide information about vaccines for Americans who have not yet received them.Biden's 2 :45 p.m. The White House's ET speech will emphasize that almost 160 million Americans will have been fully vaccinated by Monday, according to NBC.According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there are currently 157 millions Americans who have been fully vaccinated. This is less than half the population. The CDC reports that the percentage of people aged 18 to 64 rising to 58.2% and 78.7% for those 65 and older who are most at risk from Covid, respectively, increases the CDC's percentage.Biden had in May set the goal for 70% of Americans to be vaccinated by Independence Day with at least one dose. According to the CDC, 67% of Americans had received at least one dose by Independence Day.The White House official stated that as vaccination rates are slowing down, Biden will emphasize the fact that the delta variant is on the rise among people who have not received Covid shots.According to the World Health Organization, the delta variant was first identified in India. It has since been detected in at least 96 countries including the United States.According to the WHO, the variant is 55% more likely to spread than the other strain found in the United Kingdom. This has threatened to derail plans by some countries to remove social-distancing restrictions. According to the CDC it is the dominant variant and accounts for 25% of all U.S. Covid cases.Last month, Dr. Anthony Fauci, chief medical advisor to the White House, called delta "the greatest threat" to the country's fight against the pandemic.CNBC's former commissioner of Food and Drug Administration Dr. Scott Gottlieb said last week that although the delta variant could cause an increase of cases, he doesn’t anticipate a huge surge in infections comparable to those experienced at earlier stages of the pandemic."I don’t believe it’s going to become a raging epidemic throughout the country, like what we saw last winter." Gottlieb stated that he believes there will be pockets of spread and that prevalence overall will pick up. Gottlieb spoke on "Squawk box."The White House has deployed Covid-19 response teams to combat the variant. These teams will be made up of representatives from the CDC as well as other federal agencies. They will assist communities most at risk.According to Dr. Rochelle Walensky, CDC Director, there are still approximately 1,000 U.S. counties with a vaccination coverage below 30%.These counties are mainly located in the Southeast or Midwest. The agency already sees an increase in disease rates in these areas due to the spread of the delta variant.This report was contributed by Ylan Mui, CNBC.Disclosure: Scott Gottlieb, a CNBC contributor, is a member the boards of Pfizer and genetic testing start-up Tempus. He is also a member of Aetion Inc.'s health-care tech company Aetion, and Illumina's biotech company Illumina. He is also co-chair of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings and Royal Caribbean's Healthy Sail Panel.
