US: Less than 24M vaccinated against virus in 6 weeks

By Beyza Binnur Donmez

ANKARA (AA) - Less than 24 million people in the US, the country with the most number of coronavirus cases and related deaths, have been vaccinated against COVID-19, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The world's largest economy began a nationwide immunization drive on Dec. 15. Of the total 23,5M vaccinated Americans, 3.48 million have received the second and final dose.

Nearly 44.4 million doses have been distributed nationwide, 53% of which have been administered as of Jan. 26, meaning 7.2% of the total population.

Slightly more than 13 million people have received the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, while nearly 10.5 million have been injected with the one developed by Moderna. About 100,000 people received a non-identified vaccine, the CDC data showed.

California, Texas and Florida are the states where most number of people have been inoculated – 2.5 million, 1.9 million and 1.5 million, respectively.

Meanwhile, North Dakota (86.9%), New Mexico (77.6%) and West Virginia (75.6%) have the highest percentage of vaccinations in relation to the doses received.

In Oregon, 308,000 of the nearly 590,000 distributed vaccines were administered, however, educators received doses ahead of senior citizens after a controversial decision by the state's Democratic governor.

Kate Brown defended her move, saying she wants students back for in-person learning.

The US has registered nearly 25.5 million cases and 425,250 fatalities, according to a running tally by Johns Hopkins University.

The number of American fatalities from novel coronavirus have recently surpassed US casualties during the World War II.