A White House official said on Wednesday that the US will get nearly half of all adults with their first injection of the coronavirus vaccine by the end of this weekend.
This comes after Andy Slavitt, senior White House adviser on Covid-19 response, gave an ambitious timeline to CNN’s Chris Cuomo on Tuesday night.
“We are on track that by the weekend half of the adults in the country will have their first chance,” Slavitt said.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say 41.7% of the population over the age of 18 has received at least one dose of the vaccine.
Slavitt warned that “more than 100 million adults have still not been vaccinated.”
“They are not there yet, and you won’t win the war until you take everyone with you,” he added.
President Biden, meanwhile, has pushed back the deadline for all American adults to be eligible for the Covid vaccine April 19thAt the White House yesterday, Biden said 150 million doses of the coronavirus vaccine were delivered within his first 75 days in office, in line with a stated target of 200 million shots by his 100th day in office.
Despite those improvements and positive vaccine numbers, the US still has a long way to go before achieving immunity to herds. Dr. Anthony Fauci has estimated that 70-85% of the population must become immune. And the pace for vaccinating all willing adults varies widely between states, according to a CNN analysis of federal data.
And while health experts warn that the battle against Covid-19 has not yet been won, many states have already reopened and others plan to do so soon as well.
California plans to fully reopen operations and businesses starting June 15 as infection rates fall, hospital admissions are low and vaccinations increase in the state. Vermont Gov. Phil Scott has drawn up a 90-day reopening plan leading up to July 4th. Officials expect that about 70% of Vermont residents will have received at least one dose of vaccine by then.
Meanwhile, the daily number of new cases has increased over the past four weeks as highly communicable variants such as B.1.1.7. have spread, according to the CDC. According to data from Johns Hopkins University, about 44% of new cases of Covid-19 accounted for about 44% in the past week.
There were about 453,000 new cases in the country in the past seven days, New York, Michigan, Florida, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey reported nearly 198,000 of those cases.
Director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota Michael Osterholm said that while the states are vaccinating quickly, still not enough people have been vaccinated to outstrip the spread.
I wish we had 3 or 4 months left before this B.1.1.7. Variable wave started to occur, ”added Osterholm.
What is life like after vaccination? Experts and officials debate how to control vaccinations once US life regains a sense of normalcy.
Read more:
