Half of US adults have received at least 1 dose of COVID-19 vaccine, CDC says

As of Sunday morning, 50% of American adults 18 and older have received at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine, according to vaccination data from the CDC.

The CDC’s vaccine tracker shows 129,988,985 people 18 and older in this country have received at least one dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine, or the single-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine. That’s 50.4% of the adult population.

Some of the vaccines are approved for emergency use in teens who are as young as 16. When those vaccinations are included, there have been 131,247,546 vaccinations as of Sunday morning, or roughly 39.5% of the entire population of this country.

Just over 84 million Americans are fully-vaccinated, about 25.4% of the population, meaning they have received both doses of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine or the single-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

Moderna and Pfizer are currently testing the efficacy of their vaccines in younger children. Pfizer has applied to the FDA for approval to give their vaccine to children as young as 12. The FDA has not responded to their request yet.

The increasing rate of vaccinations has prompted some cities and states to loosen restrictions on masks, gatherings and indoor capacities.

However, the loosening restrictions, combined with quickly-spreading variants of the coronavirus, are causing more reported cases.

In America, infection rates are remaining stubbornly high and are rising sharply in some parts of the country.

Nationwide, the number of new infections has, on average, remained above 50,000 a day since mid-October, according to the CDC.

Sadly, on Saturday the world reached 3 million deaths from COVID-19, according to tracking from Johns Hopkins University.