WASHINGTON — The White House said on Friday that Johnson & Johnson would offer at least 11 million doses on its coronavirus vaccine next week, after concerns the company could fall short of its production goal of 20 million doses by the end of the month.

“The company has said they’ll deliver the 20 million doses by the end of March, and from our conversations with the company, they appear on track to meet that goal with at least 11 million doses delivered next week,” White House coronavirus response coordination Jeff Zients said in a briefing.

“We have done a lot to help J and J. We’re monitoring that very closely and we anticipate a significant increase at the end of this month, which will enable them to hit at least 20 million doses,” he added.

US President Joe Biden announced earlier this month a new partnership between the tow giant pharmaceutical companies (Merck) and (Johnson and Johnson) to accelerate the product of vaccines.

He noted that the federal government will enter into the partnership based on the activation of the ”defense production law” that allows the transfer of production lines to deal with the major challenge facing the country.

The US received 4 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine shortly after it was cleared for use at the end of February. But since then there has been a lag in production as the manufacturer scaled up operations.

The influx of the single-dose vaccine will give a boost to the Biden administration’s goal of administering 200 million shots in the president’s first 100 days — a goal that administration officials said they can meet if they keep their current pace of 2.5 million shots per day. Currently, 1 in 3 adults have been vaccinated, Zients said.

Because the Johnson & Johnson vaccine requires only a single dose, mass vaccination clinics with the shot are easy to conduct and require limited follow up. — Agencies