According to the Bloomberg chart, roughly 4 million Americans received COVID-19 vaccination shots this past weekend. The seven-day average has dipped down to 1.83 million per day, but the U.S. exceeded 2 million shots on Thursday and Friday as well. The number of Americans who are receiving the first dose appears to be on a sustained rise, from 204,000 on May 9, to close to a million on May 18. No doubt a healthy portion of that jump reflects those from age 12 to 15 becoming eligible for vaccinations during that time period.
More than 285 million doses have been administered, an estimated 130 million Americans are fully vaccinated, and 61 percent of American adults have at least one shot. More than 85 percent of those 65 years and older have received at least one dose, and almost 74 percent are fully vaccinated.
Yes, it would have been nice if the U.S. could have sustained that pace of 3 million shots administered per day that it enjoyed for the first few weeks of April. But the country is only down about a third from the peak. But it’s still pretty impressive to see the administration rate continuing to hang round 2 million per day with almost all of the highest-priority Americans and “lowest hanging fruit” complete. Once again, the talk of the U.S. “hitting the vaccine wall” has been vastly overhyped.