More than 17 million doses have been sent, but only just under 5 million doses have been used, which means that more than 12 million doses have been sent, but not injected.
CDC data covering how many doses were sent and how many people received their first doses include the Moderna and Pfizer / BioNTech vaccines.
The CDC said the big gap in numbers was expected at this point in the vaccination process because of “delays in notifying administered doses and managing vaccine stocks available by federal pharmaceutical partners and jurisdictions”.
The CDC also said that the numbers may be delayed because health providers report doses to “federal, state, territorial and local agencies within 72 hours of administration” and then there may be an additional lag in the data as these institutions report their numbers the CDC.
South Dakota has the highest per capita rate of people who received their first dose of 3,231 per 100,000 residents, out of a total of 28,581 people who received their first dose. West Virginia is not far behind, with 3,162 per 100,000 residents, with a total of 56,664.
In New York, hospitals must now use a dose within a week after receiving it or risk being fined and cutting supplies, as Governor Andrew Cuomo pressures his state to vaccinate its residents more quickly.
“I don’t want the vaccine in the fridge or freezer, I want it on someone’s arm. If you are not performing this role, it raises questions about the hospital’s operational efficiency, “said Cuomo, reported by Reuters.
New York hospitals have so far used less than half their doses.
Six states have so far inoculated less than 1,000 people per 100,000 residents. Michigan, Arizona, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia are all on the list, but last is Kansas, where so far only 692 people per 100,000 residents have received their first dose, according to CDC data.
The total number of people in Kansas who received their first dose is 20,158.
Florida is another state where the governor threatened hospitals with penalties, unless they speeded up the process.
“I want to make an important point clear: hospitals that do not do a good job of distributing the vaccine will have their allocations transferred to hospitals that are doing a good job and distributing the vaccine. We don’t want the vaccine to be idle in any hospital system, ”said Governor Ron DeSantis, as reported by local TV station CBS12.
In an interview with The New York Times, Dr. Anthony Fauci said he believes that somewhere between 70 and 90 percent of Americans need to be vaccinated to obtain collective immunity.
The United States is closing 21 million Covid-19 cases.
354,000 Americans have died of the disease so far.
Worldwide, nearly 86 million cases of Covid have been reported and almost 1.9 million deaths.