3 states have already reached Biden's new vaccination goal, but vaccine hesitancy may make it challenging for others
(CNN)In three states, more than 70% of adults have already received at least one dose of Covid-19 vaccine, federal data showed Wednesday -- meaning they've reached the Biden administration's new vaccination goal months ahead of the July 4 target.
Those three states are New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Vermont, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data showed. Three others are very close, with more than two-thirds of adults vaccinated with at least one dose: Connecticut, Maine and Hawaii.
President Joe Biden announced a plan Tuesday to get at least one dose of vaccine administered to 70% of the nation's adult population by July 4, a target date some officials have set for a full reopening.
However, vaccine hesitancy will make it challenging for some other states to reach 70% of adults with a Covid-19 vaccine, findings from the latest Household Pulse Survey from the US Census Bureau suggest.
In Wyoming, more than a quarter of adults said that they will "definitely not" or "probably not" receive the Covid-19 vaccine, according to the Census Bureau survey.
In four additional states -- Montana, North Dakota, Kentucky and Ohio -- more than 20% of adults said the same.
When those who said they are "unsure" about receiving the Covid-19 vaccine are also included, more than 30% of adults in Wyoming, North Dakota and Montana could be considered to be vaccine hesitant.
Fewer than 45% of adults in Wyoming have received at least one dose of Covid-19 vaccine, CDC data shows, along with five other states: Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, Tennessee and West Virginia.
This comes as vaccination rates have fallen: While the US averaged 3.38 million doses administered per day across a week in mid-April, the current seven-day average is 2.19 million doses per day, according to CDC data. The most recent numbers as of Wednesday show daily vaccinations have dropped by nearly 20% from last week.
The CDC reported that almost 250 million total doses have been administered, which is nearly 78% of the 321,549,335 doses delivered. That's about 1.8 million more doses reported administered since Tuesday, dropping the seven-day average for doses reported administered per day.
To get out of the Covid-19 pandemic, the US will need to shift its vaccine strategy from mass-vaccination sites toward "walk-in capabilities in 40,000 or so pharmacies throughout the country (and) getting mobile units going," Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told CNN Tuesday.
If the US doesn't reach 80% population immunity through a combination of vaccination and natural infection, the nation could face another surge in the winter, vaccine expert Dr. Paul Offit said.
As of Wednesday morning, nearly 45% of the US population had at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, about 32% was fully vaccinated, according to the CDC. Among those 18 and older, about 57% have had at least one dose and nearly 41% are fully vaccinated.
For now, cases per day are falling. The US averaged more than 48,170 new cases a day over the last week -- the country's lowest average of 2021, according to Johns Hopkins University data.
That's 32% below this spring's peak of more than 71,200 cases a day reached three weeks ago, and about a fifth of the country's all-time peak average of 251,056 per day set on January 8.