In his first prime-time speech to the American people after signing a $1.9 trillion stimulus bill on March 11, President Joe Biden called on all U.S. states to expand COVID-19 vaccine eligibility to every adult by May 1.

“If we do this together, by July the Fourth, there’s a good chance you, your families, and friends will be able to get together in your backyard or in your neighborhood and have a cookout or a barbecue and celebrate Independence Day,” Biden said.

The speech was delivered a year after the ongoing global crisis was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO).

“This virus has kept us apart. Grandparents haven’t seen their children or grandchildren. Parents haven’t seen their kids. Kids haven’t seen their friends. The things we used to do that always filled us with joy have become the things we couldn’t do and broke our hearts,” Biden said, reflecting on the menacing events of the past year. During his speech, he held up a piece of paper with the total American death toll from the virus.

Biden promised all Americans last week that there would be enough vaccine supply for every adult American by May after regulators authorized the Johnson & Johnson one-shot vaccine.

Last month, The White House announced it would increase its weekly vaccine supply to U.S. states by some 5% percent for the next three weeks, on top of the 16% increase announced in the prior week. COVID-19 response coordinator Jeff Zients said it would allow distribution to occur more “equitably” in communities.

Equal distribution has been an enormous concern for state and federal officials. Bloomberg’s COVID-19 vaccine demographics tracker revealed that White and Asian populations are being vaccinated faster than Black and Hispanic populations.

Some have attributed the lower distribution rates among communities of color to cynicism towards the vaccine. Other factors include the inability to sign up online due to lack of access to a computer or buggy websites.

The news comes as U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said some Americans would begin receiving $1,400 stimulus payments in their bank accounts starting this weekend.

In an interview with NBC, Yellen said that the Treasury wants the economy to get back to “operating in a normal way.”

“We don’t want to have people be scarred by long spells of unemployment, being out of the labor market because children can’t go to school,” she said.

Yellen added that the relief package’s size – the second-largest in American history behind former President Donald Trump’s $2 trillion virus relief bill – was not out of the ordinary, a remark that counters fears of Republican lawmakers arguing the money is going to waste.

“I don’t believe we have overshot the mark” with the size of the relief bill, Yellen said. “I think this package is the right size.”

As of mid-March, COVID-19 has claimed nearly 530,000 American lives and over 2.5 million lives worldwide since the start of 2020.