One in 4 U.S. adults is now fully vaccinated

The U.S. reached a milestone in its vaccination efforts on Wednesday, with new data showing that close to 25 percent of adults in the country have been fully vaccinated.

The data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also show that 40 percent of adults and 75 percent of seniors have received at least one dose.

The country’s Covid-19 vaccination efforts began in December after the emergency authorization of a vaccine by the U.S. drugmaker Pfizer and the German firm BioNTech. That effort was greatly accelerated with the addition of the Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines.

States such as Illinois and California have tied their reopening plans to the success of vaccination efforts, which determine when it’s safe to resume large gatherings.

Certain states, such as New Mexico, South Dakota and Alaska, have surpassed the national average and fully vaccinated more than 30 percent of their adult populations, according to CDC data.

After his election, President Joe Biden pledged that 150 million shots would be given in his first 100 days. In March, he moved that target up to 200 million. Since then, the country has regularly administered 2 million to 3 million shots a day.

The pace of vaccine production also increased after the Biden administration announced an agreement in March that pharmaceutical Merck would assist Johnson & Johnson with its production. The effort hit a hurdle when a manufacturing snafu tainted 15 million doses of the company’s vaccine.

Still, the U.S. is on course to produce hundreds of millions of vaccine doses by summer. Biden announced Tuesday that by April 19 states should make all adults in the U.S. eligible for a Covid-19 vaccine, advancing a previous deadline by two weeks.