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Within a week, half of US states will be distributing vaccines to all adults - here's when the general public is eligible in every state

Aria Bendix,Joanna Lin Su   

Within a week, half of US states will be distributing vaccines to all adults - here's when the general public is eligible in every state
Science3 min read
  • All 50 states will likely meet Biden's target of rolling out vaccines to all adults by May 1.
  • Twelve states are already vaccinating all people over 16, and seven more will start within a week.
  • The interactive map below shows when each state plans to open vaccine eligibility to all adults.

All but 10% of the US adult population will be eligible to get vaccinated by April 19, President Joe Biden is set to announce Monday. To meet that goal, the federal government is setting up a dozen more mass vaccination sites and partnering with nearly 23,000 additional pharmacies so that 90% of Americans will have access to a vaccine within 5 miles of their home.

Biden previously directed states to make coronavirus vaccines available to all adults by May 1. Already, at least 12 states are vaccinating people age 16 and up, and seven states plan to start doing so this week.

That means that by April 5, half of US states will be distributing vaccines to the general public. Nearly three-quarters of states will have reached that milestone by the end of April.

New York and Colorado are the latest states to reveal their timeline for general-population vaccinations: Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Monday that New Yorkers aged 16 and older will be eligible to sign up and receive the vaccine starting April 6. Colorado Gov. Jared Polis said his state would open vaccines to the general public starting this Friday.

The map below shows when each state plans to open vaccine eligibility to all adult residents. You can hover over your state to find the specific date.

All states hope to meet Biden's May 1 deadline

It seems increasingly likely that all 50 states will meet or beat Biden's May 1 target.

Just eight states haven't offered a definitive timeline for when they plan to start vaccinating the general public.

Officials in New Mexico have said it's possible the state will start vaccinating all adults in mid-April if supply continues to ramp up steadily. Virginia's state vaccine coordinator, Dr. Danny Avula, also estimated last week that any adult who wants a vaccine should be able to get one starting in late April.

Alabama, Arkansas, Hawaii, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and South Dakota hope to start vaccinating the general public by May 1. But state officials have cautioned that their timelines depend on the number of available doses.

"What we want to have is the scheduling system and the infrastructure so that folks can be in line, know that they can actually have that appointment scheduled, and then have the peace of mind that they know their appointment is coming," Alison Beam, the acting secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Health, told ABC27 News.

Where the general public can already get vaccinated

Alaska became the first state to start vaccinating the general adult public on March 9. Mississippi and Oklahoma opened vaccines to all adults on March 16. Arizona, Georgia, Utah, and West Virginia followed suit last week.

Five more states - Kansas, Louisiana, North Dakota, Ohio, and Texas - started vaccinating the general adult public on Monday.

Wyoming, meanwhile, has opened vaccines to all adults in 20 out of 23 counties. Of the remaining three, Platte County will begin vaccinating all adults on March 31, Lincoln County within the first week of April, and Teton County on April 5.

K-12 teachers are already eligible to receive vaccines in all 50 states. Meanwhile, 38 states are vaccinating grocery-store workers and 37 states are vaccinating restaurant workers, according to a New York Times survey. Adults with high-risk medical conditions are eligible to receive vaccines in all but three states: Connecticut, Idaho, and Maine.

In total, more than 95 million Americans - nearly 29% of the population - have received at least one vaccine dose, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Among Americans 65 and over, nearly 73% have gotten at least one dose, and 49% have been fully vaccinated.

The US is administering about 2.3 million doses a day on average. At that pace, the country is on track give first doses to all of its adult population by early June.

This article was originally published on March 20. It is being updated regularly to include states' latest vaccination schedules.

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