President Joe Biden on Wednesday called on Americans to do their patriotic duty and get a COVID shot. He urged businesses (with the enticement of a tax credit) to give their employees the paid time-off to do so.
The President’s renewed appeals come as the country is fast-approaching an arguably more difficult stage of its vaccine roll-out—one where demand for the vaccine no longer outstrips supply.
As of April 21, 133.4 million Americans—including 80.6% of seniors, 51.5% of adults, and 40.5% of the total population—had received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s up from 123.9 million people a week ago. Roughly 87.6 million Americans, or 26.4% of the population, have been fully vaccinated. In total, since the rollout began in December, the U.S. has administered 216 million vaccines of the 277.9 million distributed across the country.