JUST IN: US Covid Vaccinations Officially Surpass Total Cases During Pandemic
The United States’ battle against the Covid-19 pandemic passed a major milestone on Monday, as the number of fully vaccinated Americans surpassed the number of those who have been infected by the virus.
MSNBC host Brian Williams marked the turning point on his Monday night version of The 11 Hour, invoking the military analogy of Julius Caesar crossing the Rubicon as a significant step in pushing toward victory.
“As of this evening, there’s more fully vaccinated Americans than the number of Americans with confirmed cases of coronavirus,” Williams said, citing official stats from Johns Hopkins University.
Per the university’s tracking model, the U.S. has now fully vaccinated 30.7 million people against Covid, while the number of people who have contracted coronavirus since last February stands at 29.2 million. Currently, the seven-day average of vaccination shots stands at 2.17 million per day (although nearly all of those are of the two-shot versions to be fully effective), while the current seven-day average of new daily cases of Covid has fallen to just over 40,000.
?VACCINE DATA UPDATE (March 8)??
?1.7M doses today; 7-day avg=2.17M/day
➕US: 92.1M doses total⚠️Data *do not* include U.S. J&J doses; those may come later today. The ?? figure may change substantially.
Full story: https://t.co/0eOgSRgh2J pic.twitter.com/VF7GlZlT5y
— Drew Armstrong (@ArmstrongDrew) March 8, 2021
“It’s a big change,” Williams added, noting that the symbolic moment also came on the same day that the CDC issued its initial guidance on the broader list of activities and gatherings now available to newly-vaccinated people.
Watch the video above, via MSNBC.
