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Coronavirus Watch: Will America meet Biden's Fourth of July vaccine goals?

Grace Hauck   | Paste BN

President Joe Biden's vaccine goal for America – 70% of adults receiving at least one shot by the Fourth of July – is starting to look like a long shot.

Just over half of the nation's total population, including children, have received at least one dose, and the pace of vaccine administration has fallen significantly from its peak in early April.

Check out this interactive graph to see how many people would need to be vaccinated each week to hit the president's goal.

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

  • Moderna has requested an emergency use authorization for its COVID-19 vaccine for kids 12-17, the company announced Thursday. The Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine already has won authorization for kids as young as 12.
  • Pfizer and BioNTech announced plans Thursday to donate 500 million doses to the U.S. government to distribute to 92 low-income countries and the African Union.
  • Former Wisconsin governors Jim Doyle, a Democrat, and Scott Walker, a Republican, are joining together to promote vaccination in a new public service TV spot. Both are vaccinated.
  • Vaccine passport? Germany has started rolling out a digital vaccination pass that can be used across Europe as the continent gears up for the key summer travel season.
  • The World Health Organization warned the highly transmissible Delta variant first identified in India is "poised to take hold in the region."

Today's numbers: The U.S. has reported more than 33 million COVID-19 cases and 598,000 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. Worldwide, there have been more than 174 million cases and more than 3.7 million deaths. Nearly 52% of people in the U.S. have received at least one vaccine shot, and more than 42% are fully vaccinated, according to the CDC.

Tracking the pandemic: See the numbers in your area here. See where cases are rising here. See vaccination rates here. And here, compare vaccinations rates worldwide and see which countries are using which vaccines.

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

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