President Biden will deliver a prime-time address on Thursday to commemorate the first anniversary of the coronavirus “shutdown” and to talk about the role “Americans will play in beating the virus,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki announced Monday.

The address is part of a busy week of events focused on the coronavirus as Congress nears final passage of a $1.9 trillion relief bill.

Biden said Monday that, on the whole, the nation is “doing pretty good” administering coronavirus vaccines — and close to meeting his goal of 100 shots in his first 100 days in office — but that a greater focus is needed on at-risk neighborhoods.

His comments came during a visit to the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Washington, where he looked on as health workers prepared vaccines to administer.

“We’re doing pretty good across the country,” Biden said. “We’re going to reach 100 million doses pretty soon. But we have to focus more on getting to the neighborhoods that are at-risk neighborhoods.”

As Biden mingled with staff and patients, he also said it was important for him to be hands-on, relaying that it was something he learned from the administration of the Recovery Act, the stimulus package signed into law in 2009 when he was vice president and the United States was in the midst of the Great Recession.

“I learned from running the Recovery Act — you’ve got to be hands-on,” Biden said. “You’ve got to get down to the detail.”


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