Some states are making great strides in vaccinating their residents against COVID-19, but the ones that are not may soon be contending with a more transmissible variant, experts say.
About 45.2% of the US population is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, CDC data showed, and in 16 states and Washington, DC, that proportion is up to more than half, and 16 have reached President Joe Biden's goal to vaccinate 70% of adults with at least one dose.
But some states -- such as Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee and Wyoming -- have fully vaccinated less than 35% of residents.
More than 500 days and 600,000 deaths since the first person in the United States was reported to have died from COVID-19, experts have upheld vaccines as the key to reopening the country safely and containing the variants, many of which are more transmissible.