Coronavirus News Update – May 23: Northeast Leads Country in Vaccinations, While the South Lags Behind

The famed Chattanooga Choo-Choo in Tennessee, where only 38.4% of adults have received at least one vaccine shot.

Vaccination rates vary widely across the country.  The Northeast leads the nation, with over 60% of residents having received at least one dose of coronavirus vaccine, according to data published by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  The same figure in the South is only 40%.   The rates for California and New York State, two areas which saw some of the greatest suffering amidst the height of the pandemic, are 61% and 63.3%, respectively.

As of Sunday morning, the world has recorded over 167.3 million Covid-19 cases and has seen more than 3.47 million deaths, according to Worldometer, a service that tracks such information. In addition, over 148.3 million people worldwide have recovered from the virus.

Since the start of vaccinations at the end of last year, the world has administered more than 1.63 billion doses as of Sunday morning, the equivalent of approximately 21 doses for every 100 people.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that as of Sunday, 162.5 million people in the United States have received at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine. Around 61.1% of the population over the age of 18 – some 157.7 million people – has received at least a first inoculation, including 127.1 million people, or 49.2% of the same population, who have received both doses. Meanwhile, 57.9% of the population over the age of 12, or 162.4 million people, have received at least one shot, including 128.9 million, or 46% of the same population, who have received both doses. Overall, 38.9% of the population, or 129 million people, has been fully vaccinated against the virus.

Rhode Island became the eighth state to have administered at least one dose of coronavirus vaccine to 70% of its adult population, according to CDC data.  The other states on the list are Connecticut, Hawaii, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey and Vermont.

The coronavirus is spreading to rural India although it has stabilized in some parts of the country. The death toll was once again over 4,000 on Saturday, with 4,194 deaths additional deaths recorded.

In India, the country’s information technology ministry on Friday asked all social media companies to take down any content that refers to an “Indian variant” of the coronavirus, the news agency Reuters is reporting.  The so-called Indian variant, classified as B.1.167, was first identified in India last year.  On May 11, the World Health Organization said that this mutation was being classified as a variant of global concern. The following day, the Indian government said in a statement that using the term “Indian variant” was without any basis.

Meanwhile a Public Health study in the United Kingdom found that both the Pfizer/BioNTech and the AstraZeneca vaccines “highly effective” against the India Covid-19 variant.

(Photo: Accura Media Group)