Roughly 32 million Americans have gotten at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine, according to data from the CDC. A little less than one-third of that group has gotten both doses.
Why it matters: The Biden administration is trying to get as many shots into as many arms as quickly as possible — the key not only to saving lives today, but to containing the pandemic and heading off the spread of more dangerous variants of the virus.
Where it stands: Alaska is leading the way, with almost 15% of its population vaccinated.
- Seven more states — Connecticut, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Virginia and West Virginia — have vaccinated at least 10% of their residents. So has Washington, D.C.
- A handful of southern and midwestern states are bringing up the rear: Alabama, Iowa, Missouri and Kansas have all vaccinated less than 8% of their population. Idaho is also below 8%.
By the numbers: The federal government has delivered roughly 60 million doses to the states, and about 70% of those doses have been administered, per the CDC.
- The U.S. is averaging about 1.3 million shots per day, including both first and second doses.
What we’re watching: New cases and hospitalizations and falling as vaccinations pick up. The challenge now is to keep those trends moving in the right direction — ideally, to accelerate them — and hope to head off the rise of more contagious variants that could threaten this tentative progress.
