Half of US population is fully vaccinated against Covid-19, official says

By Deidre McPhillips, CNN

Half of the US population is fully vaccinated against Covid-19, White House Data Director Dr. Cyrus Shahpar said Friday.

More than 821,000 doses had been reported administered over the previous day’s total, including about 555,000 people who got their first shot, Shahpar said in a tweet.

“50% of Americans (all ages) are now fully vaccinated. Keep going!” he tweeted.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s online Covid-19 vaccination data tracker had not officially updated with this data by noon ET Friday, but was expected to in the afternoon.

As of Thursday morning, the CDC had said, 49.9% of the US population was fully vaccinated. The fully vaccinated percentage out of the population eligible for the vaccine — 12 and older — was 58.4%.

The first dose of Covid-19 vaccine was administered about nine months ago, on December 14. It took about four months — until late March — to fully vaccinate a quarter of the US population, and another four and a half months to reach half, according to the CDC.

An average of 699,261 doses have been administered each day over the past seven days, and an average of 464,778 people initiated vaccination each day over the past seven days, according to the latest data available from the CDC.

Covid-19 vaccinations in the US reached a record high in mid-April, with an average of more than 3 million shots administered each day and about 2 million people initiating vaccination each day.

The-CNN-Wire
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