More than 100 million Covid-19 vaccine doses have been administered worldwide, according to the latest data tracked by Bloomberg. It’s a significant milestone that comes just two months after the first vaccine studies were submitted for regulatory review.
According to bloomberg.com, in total, more than 101 million doses have been given in 64 countries around the world. The pace of vaccinations continues to increase, with the latest average rate at roughly 4.25 million doses a day, according to data collected by Bloomberg.
In the U.S., more Americans have now received at least one dose than have tested positive for the virus since the pandemic began. Some 32.8 million doses have been given, most recently at an average rate of 1.34 million doses per day.
The U.S. rollout fell short of federal projections as vaccinations proceeded unevenly across the states. The initial round of shots through early January has been doled out primarily through hospitals and other institutional health-care settings. The next phase will draw more on pharmacies and health clinics—places where vaccines are more traditionally administered—and will broaden the pool of people eligible to get the shots. Some states are turning sport stadiums and theme parks into mass vaccination centers.
In an effort to speed up vaccinations after a rocky rollout, the U.S. government on Jan. 12 began encouraging states to start immunizing all residents 65 and older, along with those ages 16 and older with certain medical conditions. The directive would open vaccinations up to more than a third of the U.S. population—more than the current supply of vaccines could support.
Daily Vaccinations in the U.S.
An average of 1.34 million shots were recorded each day for the last week.
Note: Data from Bloomberg’s Covid-19 Vaccine Tracker
The U.S. is managing state allocations of Pfizer and BioNTech’s vaccine, as well as Moderna’s shot and has said it will make more shots available in order to increase vaccinations. Both vaccines require two doses taken several weeks apart. At least 6.08 million people have completed the two-dose vaccination regimen.
U.S. Vaccination Campaign
Global Effort to Stop Covid
The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine has now been cleared for use across North America, Europe and the Middle East, and vaccination campaigns have begun in at least 64 countries. That shot and the vaccine from Moderna were both found to reduce coronavirus infections by 95% in trials of tens of thousands of volunteers.
A vaccine by AstraZeneca Plc and University of Oxford got its first major authorization, by the U.K., on Dec. 30.
Other countries got a head start on vaccinations. China and Russia authorized their own shots in July and August, before they’d been fully tested. Since then, the countries have administered millions of doses, though they provide less frequent updates on their progress.
With the start of the global vaccination campaign, countries have experienced unequal access to vaccines and varying degrees of efficiency in getting shots into people’s arms. Israel’s rate of innoculations dwarfs the efforts of other nations, with 55.1 doses administered for every 100 people. Most countries haven’t yet given their first shots.
Delivering billions of vaccines to stop the spread of Covid-19 worldwide will be one of the greatest logistical challenges ever undertaken.
When will life return to normal? It’s a complicated question and the subject of debate among epidemiologists. While the best vaccines are thought to be about 95% effective, it may still be possible to spread the disease after getting inoculated. Anthony Fauci, the top infectious-disease official in the U.S., has said that vaccinating 70% to 85% of the U.S. population would enable a return to normalcy.
On a global scale, that’s a daunting level of vaccination. Shots are currently being reported at an average rate of 4.25 million a day. At that pace it would take years to achieve a significant level of global immunity. The rate, however, is steadily increasing, and new vaccines by additional manufacturers may soon be available.
Vaccine Timeline
Bloomberg is tracking the development of nine of the globe’s most promising vaccines. A total of seven vaccines are now available for public use, in limited quantities, in at least 64.
Nations have poured billions of dollars into developing new vaccine technologies, testing them in thousands of volunteers, scaling up manufacturing, and then bringing them to market in record time.
None of these shots, on its own, is enough to inoculate a global population of some 7.8 billion people. But together they represent humanity’s best chance of ending a scourge that has claimed more than 2.1 million lives and triggered global economic calamity.
