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Nearly half of Americans have at least one vaccine shot as Covid case counts fall further

Roughly half of all Americans have received at least one dose of a Covid vaccine, based on Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data published Thursday, as nationwide infection levels continued their downward trend.

New Covid cases are 23,033 per day, on a seven-day average, down 21% from a week prior, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

U.S. share of the population vaccinated

CDC data shows 49.9% of the U.S. population has received one shot or more, with 40% having completed a full vaccination program.

Among those aged 18 and older, 62% are at least partially vaccinated.

Data in a Kaiser Family Foundation survey published Friday suggests that adult vaccination rates could reach 70% in the next few months. President Joe Biden is aiming to hit that target by July 4.

In addition to 62% of survey respondents reporting they have received one dose or more, 4% said they want the vaccine as soon as possible. Another 4% of adults — who said they want to “wait and see” before getting a shot — reported that they have already scheduled an appointment or plan to get the vaccine in the next three months.

The share of respondents saying they will “definitely not” get vaccinated or only do so if required has remained steady at around 20% in the past few monthly Kaiser Foundation surveys.

U.S. vaccine shots administered

About 1.6 million vaccine shots have been reported administered each day on average over the past week, CDC data shows.

A handful of states have reported that vaccine incentive programs have increased local vaccination numbers in some demographics after recent drops.

U.S. Covid cases

The seven-day average of daily U.S. Covid cases was 23,033 as of Thursday, down more than 6,000 from a week ago, according to Johns Hopkins data.

Case counts have not been this low since June 2020.

Average daily case counts have fallen by 5% or more in 43 states and the District of Columbia over the past week, a CNBC analysis of Johns Hopkins data shows.

In some countries outside of the U.S., infection levels are rising. Bahrain, for example, has seen a record-setting spike in cases since the beginning of May despite having 55% of its population vaccinated with at least one dose, according to data from Our World in Data.

U.S. Covid deaths

The latest seven-day average of daily U.S. Covid deaths is 667, JHU data shows, though the release of backlogged data from multiple states in recent days obscures the latest trend.

Wednesday’s figures included 373 deaths reported for Oklahoma, which the state announced is part of an “ongoing effort to investigate and reconcile backlog of COVID-19 related deaths.”

Maryland on Thursday added about 500 previously unreported deaths to its totals.

In some situations, state health departments will attribute a batch of previously unreported cases or deaths to a single day, even if those may have occurred previously. The data may be updated to reflect different dates in the future.

Before the reporting issues this week, the daily death toll had been on the decline for weeks.

CNBC Health & Science

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Source: Business - cnbc.com

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