How states are doing in the COVID vaccine rollout: Storm-battered Texas falls behind

With the U.S. Food and Drug Administration poised to grant emergency use authorization to a third COVID vaccine—a one-dose product developed by Johnson & Johnson—later this week, and Moderna and Pfizeractively ramping up production, the U.S. Vaccination rollout looks likely to pick up speed in March.

While the pace of manufacturing has lagged early expectations, as of Wednesday, Feb. 24, 45.2 million Americans, or roughly 13.7% of the population, had received at least one dose of a COVID vaccine, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control, up from 40.3 million a week ago. Some 20.6 million individuals, or about 6.2% of the population, have been fully vaccinated. Overall, the country has administered 66.5 million doses of the 88.7 million distributed across the U.S.

States are at various places in their vaccination campaigns. Alaska continues to lead the country in terms of the percentage of its residents—21.4%—who have received at least one dose of the vaccine, followed by New Mexico (19.9%) and South Dakota (18.4%). As the largest state, as well as the state with the largest distribution of vaccines, California has administered the most doses overall—roughly 7.9 million. (Of the state’s population, 14.3% has gotten at least one shot.)

The District of Columbia so far has reached the smallest share of its population, with 10.5% of its residents having gotten at least one shot. After its bruising week of winter weather and power outages, Texas, where 11.7% of residents have received at least one dose, now has one of the lowest rates of vaccinated residents.

The pandemic continues, of course. While the number of new cases continues to trend downward in the U.S., America reached a particularly grim milestone earlier this week when deaths due to COVID topped 500,000.

SHARE OF THE POPULATION THAT RECEIVED AT LEAST ONE SHOT