Trump administration secures 100 million more vaccine doses from Pfizer

The Trump administration has struck a deal with Pfizer to purchase an additional 100 million doses of the coronavirus vaccine.

According to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the deal will allow for a "seamless transition" from the initial batch of coronavirus vaccines being distributed across the United States.

As part of the deal, Pfizer is expected to deliver 70 million doses of the vaccine by June of next year, with the remaining 30 million set to be delivered the following month, NPR reports.

The deal doubles the number of vaccine doses the US government has purchased from Pfizer. At $1.95 billion, the cost of securing the second set of 100 million doses is the same as the cost of the initial batch.

"Securing more doses from Pfizer and BioNTech for delivery in the second quarter of 2021 further expands our supply of doses across the Operation Warp Speed portfolio," said HHS Secretary Alex Azar.

"This new federal purchase can give Americans even more confidence that we will have enough supply to vaccinate every American who wants it by June 2021."

The announcement comes just over a week after the US upped the number of vaccines to be purchased from Moderna to 200 million doses, costing a total of $3.2 billion.

With 400 million doses overall, the United States will have well over the number of vaccines required to vaccinate the entire American population.

As of Monday, more than 600,000 Americans have received the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine.

More than 18 million Americans have contracted coronavirus since the start of the pandemic, and over 320,000 Americans have died as a result of the virus.