More than 70% of all eligible King County residents spanning all ages and racial backgrounds have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, King County Executive Dow Constantine said in a statement posted online Tuesday. King County is the first large county in the nation to reach this level of parity.
According to data monitored by Public Health — Seattle & King County, over 1.6 million residents have received at least one vaccine dose; more than 3 million doses have been given out to King County residents overall.
With the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine approved by the Food and Drug Administration, "that number is expected to continue to grow in the weeks ahead," read the statement. It credited the vaccination rates across race and age categories to Public Health — Seattle King County's outreach efforts and partnerships with community groups in areas disproportionately impacted by COVID-19.
"This is an important milestone and remarkable achievement, but as the current Delta surge shows, we still have too many eligible and unprotected," said Dr. Jeff Duchin, health officer for Public Health — Seattle & King County. "The full approval of the Pfizer mRNA vaccine by FDA should reassure anyone who has been reluctant to be vaccinated with the emergency use authorization. This vaccine now officially meets the same safety and effectiveness standard as all other routinely available vaccines."
