The current U.S. vaccination rate is the highest it’s been in a nearly month as the Indian ‘Delta’ variant drives rising COVID-19 cases among unvaccinated Americans.
An average of 673,000 doses were administered each day in the week ending August 2, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
This is the highest daily average seen since July 8, after which the average of shots administered per day fell below 600,000.
Some of the states with the highest vaccination increases right now are also the states bearing the brunt of this new COVID surge, such as Louisiana, where daily vaccinations have more than doubled in the past three weeks.
Still, it could take months for under-vaccinated states to catch up to parts of the country that are more protected against Delta.
More Americans are getting vaccinated as Delta drives surges across the country. Pictured: Vaccination at a clinic in Wilmington, California on July 29
The U.S. is now administering an average of 673,000 shots a day, compared to under 600,000 throughout the month of July
On Monday, the U.S. finally hit President Biden’s big vaccination goal – 70 percent of adults have now received at least one dose.
This goal was originally set for July 4, but it’s still a notable achievement as cases surge across the country.
Along with meeting that goal, more Americans are getting vaccinated now than earlier in the summer.
The CDC reported more than 700,000 new doses administered for five days in a row, from last Wednesday through Sunday.
As of Tuesday, the daily average hit 673,185 doses each day, which is the highest daily average since July 7, when the figure stood at 732,848 doses.
The U.S. had administered under 600,000 doses a day throughout the month of July.
This number is a fraction of the daily doses administered during the peak of America’s vaccination campaign – in mid-April, over three million doses were administered a day.
Still, public health officials are encouraged by the rising numbers, since it means more Americans are becoming protected against the Delta variant.
The U.S. is now seeing more than 80,000 new cases a day, according to data from Johns Hopkins.
That’s the highest case number since February – and more than 80 percent of those cases are caused by the Delta variant.
‘This may be a tipping point for those who have been hesitant to say, ‘OK, it’s time,” Dr Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, said in an interview with CNN on Sunday.
‘I hope that’s what’s happening. That’s what desperately needs to happen if we’re going to get this Delta variant put back in its place.’
This ‘tipping point’ is especially apparent in some states that have been hardest hit by the Delta surge.
In Louisiana, daily vaccination numbers have doubled in the past three weeks to 15,000 shots a day
In Arkansas, daily vaccination numbers are the highest they’ve been since May at 9,000 doses per day
Florida is now seeing over 60,000 people get vaccinated a day, compared to under 40,000 earlier in the summer
In Louisiana, about 15,000 new doses have been reported every day for the past week.
That’s more than double the state’s daily dose count from three weeks ago – and the highest number since April.
‘We’ve seen our daily new administrations double, and this week they’re on pace to triple or quadruple,’ Joseph Kanter, Louisiana’s state health officer, told Bloomberg.
‘Everybody knows someone who is sick right now. Those people who are not real anti-vaxxers but were just not real confident are saying, ‘I’m not waiting a day longer.’
The situation is similar in Arkansas, where about 9,000 new doses have been reported daily for the past week – the highest vaccination count since May.
Some of these vaccinations are driven by the state’s younger population – who are seeing fellow young adults go to the hospital for Covid – Mark Williams, public health dean at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, told Bloomberg.
‘They can identify with the people who are getting infected and getting ill,’ Williams said.
Even with recent increases, it could take months for under-vaccinated areas to catch up to states with high inoculation rates
Florida – now setting all-time high records for Covid hospitalizations at more than 11,000 – is seeing a vaccination uptick as well.
About 63,000 new doses have been reported daily for the past week, compared to under 40,000 in mid-June.
From an analysis of the CDC’s county-level vaccination data, Bloomberg found that the 20 percent of counties with the slowest vaccination rates six weeks ago now have the highest rates in the country.
Even with these recent increases, it could take months for these under-vaccinated areas to catch up to states like Vermont, which has over two-thirds of its population fully vaccinated.
Massachusetts, Maine, Connecticut, and Rhode Island also have m60 percent of their populations fully vaccinated, according to the CDC.
In Louisiana, that number is only 37 percent – and in Arkansas, it’s 36 percent.
Still, with every vaccination, one more person is protected against infection, severe disease, and death from Covid.
Out of about 165 million Americans fully vaccinated against Covid, the CDC has identified just 6,600 severe breakthrough cases.
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