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Americans are receiving their COVID-19 vaccines at a higher rate, according to recently updated figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The seven-day moving average rate of first doses accelerated for the first time in months, climbing for six consecutive days in late September.
The moving average showed that 235,061 Americans began new COVID-19 vaccinations on September 25. This average climbed for six consecutive days to peak at 252,223 on September 30. One-day fluctuations aside, federal trends in first-dose vaccination have mostly slowed since early August. .
Overall, 76% of Americans eligible for a COVID-19 vaccine injection have received at least one dose and 66% are fully immunized.
The increase comes as the Biden administration is touting its efforts to promote workplace vaccination requirements, hoping to entice remaining refractories to get vaccinated.
“The people, the vaccination requirements are working, and there is nothing new about them,” Illinois President Biden said Thursday, praising companies that have put in place vaccination warrants. “They have been around for decades. We have lived with these requirements all of our lives.”
The White House released a report this week attributing demands from organizations and businesses “significant progress” in increasing vaccination rates, as well as a range of economic benefits.
The administration recently asked several large companies that do business with the federal government to impose vaccination warrants, including airlines. A spokesperson for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services said the agency plans to issue emergency regulations requiring vaccinations in nursing homes and hospitals “from mid-October to the end of October.” Mr Biden said an emergency rule from the Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration that would require vaccinations at large companies is expected “shortly.”
“In total, this Department of Labor vaccination requirement will cover 100 million Americans, or about two-thirds of all working people in America,” the president said.
The recent acceleration of first doses has unfolded unevenly in the United States. Data from the CDC shows that half of the states have on average the same or slower rate of first doses compared to the previous week.
Massachusetts, which this week became the second state to reach 90 percent of adult residents with at least one dose, has seen the fourth percent increase in those vaccinations. The first doses in Hawaii, the first to reach 90%, have especially slowed in recent weeks.
Meanwhile, childhood vaccinations have plummeted across the country, according to a weekly analysis from the American Academy of Pediatrics. First-dose vaccinations in late September slowed to “the lowest number since vaccines have been available.”
The increase in early doses came as many Americans flocked to receive booster shots. Since August 13, when the government authorized additional doses for some immunocompromised, 5,305,113 have received a booster of Pfizer vaccine.
Pennsylvania is the most populous state with a double-digit percentage increase in first doses.
“Pennsylvanians continue to get vaccinated every day, and we are proud of our continued progress,” Maggi Barton, assistant press secretary for the Pennsylvania Department of Health, said in an email.
Initial doses in Pennsylvania rose from less than 9,000 a day on September 23 to over 15,000 earlier this month. Only New Hampshire saw a larger percentage increase in first doses. Barton credited Pennsylvania’s work “to educate and combat vaccine reluctance” with the rise.
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