WASHINGTON — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Saturday that more than 50 million COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered in the United States.
The vaccine doses tally covers both the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines, as of 6 a.m. Eastern on Saturday, the CDC said on its online COVID Data Tracker. Both Moderna and Pfizer's vaccines require two-doses.
In total, the agency said 69,883,625 doses have been delivered and 50,641,884 doses have been administered so far.
The CDC said that about 37 million people have received 1 or more doses of a COVID-19 vaccine, while more than 13 million people have gotten the second dose, as of Saturday.
Getting Americans vaccinated will be key to suppressing the virus and fully reopening the economy. The Biden administration has pledged to ramp up daily doses to 1.5 million. President Joe Biden said Thursday that the U.S. will have enough doses by the end of summer to vaccinate 300 million Americans.
Since the pandemic began nearly a year ago, more than 27 million Americans have been infected and the country is on the cusp of reaching 500,000 deaths.
The Biden administration's virus response plan calls for opening 100 federally supported vaccination sites by the end of February. But some states are hesitating to take the offer, at least for now, saying they don't need more places to administer doses. They just need more doses.
On Friday, several national chains including Walmart, CVS and Walgreens started giving COVID-19 vaccines received from the federal government. The free vaccinations, currently only available at a limited number of stores in certain states, are part of the Federal Retail Pharmacy Program, a state and federal partnership that targets getting immunizations in underserved areas.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
