WASHINGTON: Half of the US population is now fully vaccinated against Covid-19, the White House said on Friday, because inoculation rose in response to the Delta variant which jumped from Coronavirus.
“50% of Americans (all ages) are now fully vaccinated. Continue!” Cyrus Shahpar, Data Director of Covid-19 Covid-19, Tweeted.
That means more than 165 million people have received a modern vaccine or two-dose Pfizer, or Johnson & Johnson’s one-and done.
The threshold of half of all American adults is fully vaccinated at the end of May.
US President Joe Biden has pressured Americans to get vaccinations since he served in January but has faced stubborn resistance, especially in the conservative part of the country, with sharp inoculation declining in April.
The aggressive vaccination program has increased hopes of returning to some of the resemblances of normal life this summer, but the plan is blocked by the Delta variant.
In an increasingly assertive approach, the Biden government has asked all federal employees to get covid testing vaccinated or facing twice a week.
Biden hinted on Friday there would be more steps, saying, “there will be more will come in the coming days.”
White House spokesman Jen PSAKI said there was a “initial conversation, initial discussion about various choices.”
One possibility mentioned in the press report is to pressure the nursing home – an entertainment of death at the beginning of the pandemic – to force vaccination between staff or the risk of losing public funds.
Cities including New York and Los Angeles impose new restrictions, such as demanding evidence of vaccination to enter indoor places including restaurants and fitness centers.
On average seven days of newly vaccinated people rose 11 percent from last week, and up 44 percent over the past two weeks, Shahpar said.
Daily new cases, death and hospitalization have increased sharply in recent weeks. Last week, there was an average of 90,000 new coronavirus cases per day, with Florida and Texas accounted for one third of them, the White House said.
The United States returned to around 380 Covid-19 deaths a day, with an average hospitalization of 7,300 a day for a week.
The level of transmission of this virus community is “high” or “substantial” in 85 percent of the country, disease control centers and prevention say.
The United States is a nation that was hit by a pandemic, with 615,000 deaths.
