US struggles with vaccine goal; India cases reach 30m

The White House on Tuesday publicly acknowledged it would miss US President Joe Biden's COVID-19 goal of vaccinating 70 percent of adults with at least one dose by the July Fourth holiday weekend.

The admission came as India, another country hit by hard by the coronavirus pandemic, passed the grim milestone of 30 million infections.

In Washington, White House coronavirus coordinator Jeff Zients on Tuesday announced a revised COVID-19 vaccination goal under which the count for the 70 percent threshold by that date would be applied to adults aged 27 and older.

More than 70 percent of US citizens aged 30 or older have received at least one dose of a vaccine, Zients said.

In the past week, an average of about 353,000 adults received their first vaccine each day. To reach Biden's original goal, that number will need to increase to about 892,000 adults newly vaccinated daily, an analysis by USA Today said.

If the rate of adult vaccinations continues on the current seven-day average, the country will have about 67 percent of adults partially vaccinated by July 4, The New York Times forecast.

Sixteen states and the District of Columbia have reached the goal already, but some states are at less than 50 percent of all adults, Zients said at a White House briefing.

The nation also needs "a few extra weeks" to ensure that US citizens between ages 18 and 26 are vaccinated at rates similar to older adults, Zients said at the news briefing. The age group has been shown to be least likely to get a vaccine when it's available for them, a new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC, study released on Monday said.

Young less keen on jabs

"The reality is, many younger Americans have felt like COVID-19 is not something that impacts them and have been less eager to get the shot," Zients said.

Adults 18-39 years with lower incomes, lower educational attainment, without health insurance, who were non-Hispanic black adults who lived in suburban areas had the lowest reported vaccination coverage and intent to get vaccinated, the CDC study said.

Under Biden's vaccination goals, announced on May 4, at least 160 million citizens were to be fully vaccinated by July 4. Zients said the US would also miss that target.

Data from the CDC shows that over 65 percent of adults have received at least one vaccine, while nearly 53 percent, or approximately 150 million people, are fully vaccinated.

As of early Wednesday, worldwide cases have reached 178,503,429, with 3,872,457 deaths reported, the World Health Organization said.

India's COVID-19 tally surpassed the 30-million mark and the death toll crossed 390,000 on Wednesday, the country's federal health ministry said. The exact tally rose to 30,028,709, the death toll hit 390,660.

Vaccination on a war-footing has been undertaken by the central government with effect from Monday. A record 8.5 million vaccination doses were administered free of cost to Indians aged over 18 on Monday, the first day of the new vaccination policy announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi a couple of weeks ago.

The vaccination drive has been ramped up through availability of more vaccines, advance visibility of vaccine availability to states for enabling better planning by them, and streamlining the vaccine supply chain.

The federal government conducted as many as 68,000 sessions on Monday across the length and breadth of the country in a bid to achieve the ambitious target of vaccinating over 940 million people aged over 18 years.

In the words of V.K. Paul, a senior functionary of the federal government, the possible third wave could be stopped only through large-scale vaccination and people strictly following health protocols.

Xinhua contributed to this story.