The US now leads the world in Covid-19 vaccine shots administered, with more than 1.12 million doses given in the first 10 days of its campaign, according to state-by-state data compiled by Bloomberg.<\/p>\n
Three states have now vaccinated more than 1% of their populations: North Dakota, West Virginia, and Alaska. California leads in total vaccinations at 128,000 shots.<\/p>\n
The numbers fall short of a US goal to administer 20 million shots in 2020, US officials acknowledged Wednesday.<\/p>\n
That amount will be disbursed to states by the end of the month, but not in time to be administered.<\/p>\n
Shots are rolling out from Pfizer Inc. and Moderna Inc, focused at first on hundreds of thousands of health-care workers around the country who have been battling the virus on the front lines in hospitals.<\/p>\n
The vaccines require two shots weeks apart to deliver the highest level of protection.<\/p>\n
Urgency is rising as a wave of winter infections washes over the northern hemisphere. New variants of the disease have been detected in the UK and South Africa.<\/p>\n
The mutations appear to make the virus more contagious and may be increasing infections among healthy young people. In the US, more than 2,500 people are dying every day.<\/p>\n
China, which has several home-grown vaccines, said on Dec. 19 that it had reached the million-dose milestone. That figures include some people who have already taken the second dose. Russia has vaccinated 440,000 people.<\/p>\n
Both countries got a head start in August by authorizing domestically produced vaccines before they\u2019d been fully tested.<\/p>\n
The UK is also making rapid progress delivering the shots and is expected to provide an update on its tally as soon as Wednesday afternoon.<\/p>\n