Brigadier General Janeen Birckhead of the Maryland National Guard visits a woman as she receives her modern coronavirus vaccine from specialist James Truong (L) at CASA de Maryland’s Wheaton Welcome Center in Wheaton, Maryland on May 21, 2021.
Chip Somodevilla | Getty Images
Half of adults in the United States are fully vaccinated against the coronavirus, according to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Tuesday.
The milestone in the U.S.’s sweeping effort to vaccinate its way out of the pandemic is as Covid infections and deaths fall to lows the nation hasn’t seen in nearly a year.
Earlier this month, President Joe Biden set a goal of getting 70% of adults to get at least their first dose of a Covid vaccine by July 4th. The president said his hope is that the US will “celebrate our independence as a nation and our independence from this virus” by Independence Day.
With almost six weeks until Biden’s self-imposed deadline, at least nine states have already reached this 70% threshold.
The CDC’s vaccine tracker showed Tuesday afternoon that 50% of the US population aged 18 and over had been fully vaccinated by Monday, and 61.6% of that group had received at least one dose.
Among the people in the United States aged 65 and over who are at a far greater health risk from Covid, nearly 74% have been fully vaccinated, the CDC tracker shows.
