WASHINGTON (NewNation Now) — President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris took part in an event marking the 50 million COVID-19 vaccine shots given since they took office Thursday.

More than 66 million COVID-19 vaccine shots have been administered in the U.S. to date, according to the CDC, including 50 million since Biden and Harris entered the White House. Biden set an initial goal of 100 million doses in their first 100 days in office.

“At first, critics said that goal was too ambitious, no one could do that, then they said it was too small, but the bottom line though is that America will be the first country, perhaps the only one to get that done,” Biden said.

Biden said vaccinations are “weeks ahead of schedule” in regards to the 100 million goal, despite recent setbacks caused by winter storms across the country.

“The story of this vaccination campaign is like the story of everything hard and new America does: some confusion and setbacks at the start, and then if we do the right things, we have the right plan to get things moving,” Biden said.

Biden said the pace of vaccinations has increased from about six million doses a week to about 12 million doses a week since they took office.

Currently, nearly 60% of people over 75 have received at least one shot of a COVID-19 vaccine, Biden said, as well as 75% of people in long-term care facilities.

Biden said the current goal for vaccine manufacturers is to have enough doses for every adult American by the end of July.

Prior to the event, Biden and Harris also received a briefing from members of their COVID-19 team on virus response and the state of vaccinations.