Sixteen states have used less than half of their distributed coronavirus vaccines, even as the country faces a crisis in the number of shots that go into arms, according to data released on Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) ).
According to the CDC vaccine tracker, Alabama, Wisconsin, Kansas, Hawaii, Arizona, Pennsylvania, California, Maryland, Minnesota, Idaho, Missouri, Mississippi, Illinois, Massachusetts, Nebraska and Ohio administered less than 50 percent of doses of vaccine they got.
The data is the latest sign of a vaccine implantation that started slowly and is gradually increasing. Of the total of 48,386,275 doses distributed, only 26,193,682 have been administered to date.
Several states, however, have warned that they are running out of sufficient doses to fulfill their vaccination appointments.
California enlisted the help of the Blue Shield of California to distribute vaccines, and Minnesota implemented a lottery to schedule 8,000 appointments for more than 226,000 people who sought one.
The Biden government has pledged to work to have 100 million doses administered in the first 100 days, a goal that some critics say is not big enough.
To increase the number of vaccines available, the White House announced this week that it is increasing the weekly supply of doses of the COVID-19 vaccine sent to states by about 16 percent, bringing the supply of doses from 8.6 million to 10 million. .
“This will allow millions of Americans to be vaccinated earlier than previously anticipated,” President Biden said Tuesday in comments at the White House. “However, we have a long way to go.”
Still, detractors said the increase would make little difference.
“So, instead of 10,000 a day, do we get another 1,000 a day?” said Maryland Governor Larry Hogan (R). “We are making 18,000 a day, so that is not going to make much of a difference for us.”