Psaki talks on vaccine increases, Russia sanctions

The White House says states will be receiving a boost in vaccine supply for the fifth consecutive week.

Speaking at the White House briefing Tuesday, press secretary Jen Psaki said states will receive about 14.5 million doses of the coronavirus vaccine this week, marking a nearly 70% increase in distribution of doses over the last month.

She said White House coronavirus coordinator Jeff Zients told governors on a call Tuesday that Tuesday that pharmacies will also see an increase in allocation by about 100,000 doses this week.

Limited supply of the two approved COVID-19 vaccines has hampered the pace of vaccinations -- and that was before extreme winter weather delayed the delivery of about 6 million doses this past week.

The press secretary also announced that President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden will travel to Houston, Texas on Friday to assess the winter storm relief efforts and at the same time, visit a COVID vaccination center.

Regarding President Joe Biden's pick to lead the Office of Management and Budget, Psaki said the White House continues to support Neera Tanden, insisting the president's focus remains on working toward her confirmation.

Tanden's nomination was thrown into doubt Monday as key moderate Republican senators said they would vote against confirming her.

Asked about reports the White House is close to sanctioning Russia for both the SolarWinds hacking attack against the U.S. government as well as the poisoning of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, Psaki said the review into potential actions is still underway, but she said the administration will make a decision within "weeks, not months."