The biggest vaccination campaign in history is underway. More than 4.56 billion doses have been administered across 183 countries, according to data collected by Bloomberg. The latest rate was roughly 39.1 million doses a day.
In the U.S., 353 million doses have been given so far. In the last week, an average of 729,009 doses per day were administered.
Enough doses have now been administered to fully vaccinate 29.7% of the global population—but the distribution has been lopsided. Countries and regions with the highest incomes are getting vaccinated more than 20 times faster than those with the lowest.
While the best vaccines are highly effective at preventing hospitalization and death, it takes a coordinated campaign to stop a pandemic. Infectious-disease experts say that vaccinating 70% to 85% of the U.S. population would enable a return to normalcy.
On a global scale, that’s a daunting level of vaccination. At the current pace of 39.1 million a day, the goal of high levels of global immunity remains a long way off. Manufacturing capacity, however, is steadily increasing, and new vaccines by additional manufacturers are coming to market.
Israel was first to show that vaccines were bending the curve of Covid infections. The country led the world in early vaccinations, and by February more than 84% of people ages 70 and older had received two doses. Covid cases declined rapidly, and a similar pattern of vaccination and recovery repeated across dozens of other countries.
This progress is under threat. New strains, led by the highly transmissible delta variant, have caused renewed outbreaks. It’s now a life-and-death contest between vaccine and virus. Unvaccinated people are more at risk than ever, leading U.S. health officials to dub it a “pandemic of the unvaccinated.”
Even among those who are vaccinated, the delta variant may lead to mild cases, and those who get sick are able to spread the disease to others, according to the latest data. The vaccines remain effective at preventing hospitalization and death.
Since the start of the global vaccination campaign, countries have experienced unequal access to vaccines and varying degrees of efficiency in getting shots into people’s arms. Before March, few African nations had received a single shipment of shots. In the U.S., 106.4 doses have been administered for every 100 people.
Delivering billions of vaccines to stop the spread of Covid-19 worldwide is one of the greatest logistical challenges ever undertaken.
Roughly half of the U.S. population has been fully vaccinated, and states are flush with supply. The vaccination campaign, however, has slowed. Once the envy of the world for its swift rollout, the U.S. has since been overtaken by dozens of countries. There are still wide gaps between the most and least vaccinated counties in the U.S., leaving many communities vulnerable to continued outbreaks.
Distribution in the U.S. is directed by the federal government. Pfizer and BioNTech’s vaccine, as well as Moderna’s shot both require two doses taken several weeks apart. J&J;’s inoculation requires just a single dose. Additional booster shots may be used to enhance protections over time.
So far, 196 million Americans have received at least one dose of a vaccine—76.1% of the adult population. At least 167 million people have completed a vaccination regimen. The U.S. is sending some of its excess supply to other hard-hit regions of the world.
DC
GU
MP
AS
VI
DC
VI
GU
MP
AS
RI
CT
DE
DC
GU
MP
AS
VI
It takes about two weeks after a final vaccine dose for immunity to fully develop. While the CDC has offered guidance on mask-wearing after vaccination, many local governments and businesses have set their own rules.
Unvaccinated people, including children, should still wear masks indoors, according to the CDC’s latest guidance.
U.S. health officials are now focused on how to vaccinate people who have been reluctant to get a shot. Younger, unvaccinated populations are increasingly viewed as key to getting the pandemic under control.
After focusing first on hospitals and other institutional health-care settings, states expanded the number of places that offer the shots. Mass vaccination centers were created from sport stadiums, theme parks, convention halls and race tracks. Now the campaign has moved to more traditional health-care settings: pharmacies, doctors’ offices and clinics.
Correction (Aug. 11): Because of a data-entry error, Kosovo’s number of doses administered was overstated, which also affected our calculation of vaccine coverage for the country.
Tips and Feedback: Help us improve the Covid-19 Vaccine Tracker