Coronavirus US: What percentage of the population is already vaccinated?
The US Covid-19 vaccination programme has been gathering pace since nurse Sandra Lindsay became the first person in the US to receive the vaccine in December.
The US Covid-19 vaccination programme has been gathering momentum since Sandra Lindsay, a 52-year-old critical care nurse at Long Island Jewish Medical Center, volunteered to become the first person to be vaccinated in the country back on 14 December.
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First confirmed case of Covid-19 in the US
The first reported case of Covid-19 infection in North America, according to data released by the World Health Organization (WHO), was on 21 January 2020, when a 35-year-old American citizen in Snohomish County, Washington tested positive for the virus. The man developed symptoms a week after returning home from a trip to the region close to Wuhan where the outbreak is believed to have started.
Since then, there have been 29,348,298 confirmed cases and 532,593 people have died of Covid-19-related complications in the US alone. Worldwide, the figures stand at 119,203,547 confirmed cases and 2,641,844 deaths from the virus.
Operation Warp Speed was set up by the Trump administration to develop, manufacture, distribute Covid-19 vaccines. It was launched on 15 May 2020, setting out with the aim of producing and delivering “300 million doses of safe and effective vaccines with the initial doses available by January 2021”.
On 11 December 2020, the US Food and Drug Administration authorized the first Covid-19 vaccine, developed by Pfizer-BioNTech, for emergency use. The FDA has subsequently approved two other Covid-19 vaccines - the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine was approved for emergency use a week later on 18 December and more recently, the Johnson & Johnson / Janssen vaccine which was authorised on 27 February 2021. Two more vaccines are currently undergoing Phase III trials in the US – the AstraZeneca / Oxford and Novavax vaccines. None of the authorised vaccines presently in use in the US contain the live virus which causes Covid-19, but they help the human body build up immunity to help it to be able to recognise and fight the virus.
At least seven different Covid-19 vaccines (three platforms) are currently in use worldwide and so far, over 335 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine have been administered in more than 129 countries. The global vaccination campaign is running at about 7.1 million doses per day with the United States’ vaccine rollout forging ahead faster than much of the rest of the world.
According to data issued by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), as of 6:00 hours ET on Friday, 101,128,005 people have received their Covid-19 jab in the US. So far, 65,965,305 people – 19.9% of the population, have received their first jab while 35,000,159 or 10.5% of the population have had their second jab and are now fully vaccinated. Out of those, 50,960,400 have received the Pfizer vaccine, 49,169,578 received the Moderna vaccine, 878,726 were given the J&J vaccine and 124,301 were given a vaccine which has not been specified by the CDC.
13.5% of over-18s in the US are fully vaccinated
Over a quarter of the population of the United States over the age of 18 have now received their first dose, 13.5% of those over 18 are now fully vaccinated. President Biden’s plan is to ensure that the vaccine is available to every adult in every US state by 1 May.