A White House coronavirus advisor on Friday praised seven states for their success in quickly vaccinating residents for COVID-19 as he gave an update on the federal government’s response to the crisis.
Andy Slavitt, who served as acting chief of Medicare and Medicaid under former president Barack Obama before being named a White House COVID-19 advisor, said during a briefing Friday he wanted to recognize states that have made strides in vaccinating residents.
“I want to call out seven states that have already provided first vaccinations to more than 10 percent of their adult populations: Alaska, West Virginia, New Mexico, Connecticut, North Dakota, Oklahoma, and South Dakota. Well done,” Slavitt said.
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According to data from the Centers for Disease Control, Alaska leads the way among states in administering first doses to residents with 11,711 first doses administered per 100,000 residents. Alaska is followed by West Virginia, Connecticut, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, and South Dakota.
Using this metric, Massachusetts ranks 34th among states and the District of Columbia in administering at least one dose, just behind Hawaii and ahead of South Carolina, according to the latest CDC data. Among New England states, Mass. ranks fifth, behind New Hampshire and ahead of Rhode Island.
Slavitt said the United States has been administering 1.2 million doses of vaccine per day, and he described the 1 million dose-per-day threshold as a “base to build from in the coming days, weeks, and months.”
He said the US has delivered 48 million doses to states, and 26 million of those doses have been administered.
Health officials including Dr. Anthony Fauci have said 70 to 85 percent of the population must be vaccinated in order to achieve herd immunity.
Use the charts below to see Massachusetts’ progress in administering the vaccine by different metrics:
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Christina Prignano can be reached at christina.prignano@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @cprignano.