White House says daily vaccination rate is rising among Americans getting 1st jab

White House officials on Tuesday said the United States is making "critical progress" with vaccinating Americans against COVID-19, as the daily number of people receiving their first dose of a vaccine has jumped by more than 70 percent since mid-July.

White House COVID-19 Response Team Coordinator Jeff Zients said an average of 450,000 Americans a day are getting their first vaccine dose, an increase from 260,000 about a month ago, The Washington Post reports. This is good news in the face of the highly contagious Delta variant, Zients said, which is the predominant COVID strain in the U.S.

The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine received full approval by the Food and Drug Administration on Monday, and public health officials are hopeful this will inspire more people who are hesitant of getting vaccinated to get the jab, leading to even higher numbers in the next few weeks.

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up