Coronavirus Watch: 26 states to open vaccinations to all by mid-April, officials say

About half of U.S. states will open up their vaccination efforts to all adults by mid-April, White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator Jeff Zients said Friday.

Zients said 14 states have already opened up legibility to all adults or will do so within the next week and 12 additional states will open up edibility by April 15.

In all, 46 states and the District of Columbia have already pledged to meet President Joe Biden's goal of having all Americans eligible for a vaccine by May 1, Zients said.

It's Friday, and this is the Coronavirus Watch from the Paste BN Network. Here's more news you need to know:

• A new study launched Thursday will examine whether COVID-19 can spread from vaccinated individuals to their close contacts, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said Friday. Fauci said the study will span 12,000 college students at more than 20 universities over five months.
• Case are rising, and Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the CDC, said Friday she was "deeply concerned" about the trajectory. The most recent seven-day average of new cases was up by about 7% from the prior week, while hospitalizations have increased slightly and deaths have hovered, she said.
• Curd immunity? The list of registered COVID-19 vaccine providers in Wisconsin features hundreds of hospitals, pharmacies, doctors and health centers — and some cheesemakers.
• Worldwide, up to 90 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines from India to be delivered around the world as part of the U.N.'s COVAX program will be delayed as India faces a surge in cases that will increase domestic demand. Romanian authorities announced Easter celebrations will go ahead in person this year, even though Romania is battling a surge of COVID-19 infections that is threatening to overwhelm its hospitals. And Cambodia announced it will train dogs to detect the presence of the coronavirus in humans.

Today's numbers: The U.S. has reported more than 30 million COVID-19 cases and 547,000 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. Worldwide, there have been more than 125.7 million cases and more than 2.7 million deaths. More than 26% of people in the U.S. have received at least one vaccine shot, and more than 14% of people are fully vaccinated, according to the CDC.

See the numbers in your area here, check out where cases are rising here, and see how many vaccines your state has received here.

– Grace Hauck, Paste BN breaking news reporter, @grace_hauck