ATLANTA, Ga. — More than a quarter of all U.S. adults are now fully vaccinated for COVID-19.
On Friday, data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) showed 25.6% of those 18 and older are fully vaccinated, meaning they’ve received both doses of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, or received a Johnson & Johnson shot. That’s more than 66 million adults.
The CDC data shows 43.2% of adults in the country have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, about 111 million people.
The data also shows the nation has made great progress on vaccinating seniors. About 58.4% of those 65 and older are fully vaccinated, while 76.9% have received at least one dose.
The vaccination milestones come as President Joe Biden urges states to open vaccinations up to all adults. On Tuesday, he announced a new deadline to do so, April 19, which is two weeks earlier than the administration had previously targeted.
Many states have already opened vaccinations up to all adults as they work to immunize their residents with hopes of fully opening their economies back up and returning to some since of normalcy.
Originally, Biden pledged that 150 million vaccines would be administered in his first 100 days. After surpassing that goal last month, he moved the goal up to 200 million.
After a steep drop in coronavirus cases in the U.S. earlier this year, cases have continued to plateau around the 70,000 cases per day range this month, a rate that experts say is still too high.
Public health experts are worried about another spike in cases and they’re continuing to ask Americans to take the necessary precautions to help prevent the spread of the virus, including social distancing, mask wearing, proper hand washing and other hygienic practices.
