The Army general in charge of getting COVID-19 vaccines across the United States apologized on Saturday for �miscommunication� with states over the number of doses to be delivered in the early stages of distribution.

�I failed. I�m adjusting. I am fixing and we will move forward from there,� Gen. Gustave Perna told reporters in a telephone briefing.

Perna�s remarks came a day after a second vaccine was added in the fight against COVID-19, which has killed more than 312,000 people in the U.S. Governors in more than a dozen states have said the federal government has told them that next week�s shipment of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine will be less than originally projected.

Perna acknowledged the criticism and accepted blame.

�I want to take personal responsibility for the miscommunication,� he said. �I know that�s not done much these days. But I am responsible. … This is a Herculean effort and we are not perfect.�

The general said he made mistakes by citing numbers of doses that he believed would be ready.

�I am the one who approved forecast sheets. I�m the one who approved allocations,� Perna said. �There is no problem with the process. There is no problem with the Pfizer vaccine. There is no problem with the Moderna vaccine.�

There�s a distinction between manufactured vaccine and doses that are ready to be released. The finished product must undergo �rigorous quality control and sterility tests,� which can take up to a month, the Department of Health and Human Services said.

Perna said the government now is on track to get approximately 20 million doses to states by the first week of January, a combination of the newly approved Moderna vaccine and the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.

Perna said 2.9 million Pfizer-BioNTech doses have been delivered to states so far.

In Michigan, where the Pfizer vaccine is produced, Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Friday accused the White House of �slow-walking the process.�

�We have Michigan hospitals and nursing homes ready to administer this vaccine,� she said.

(AP)