Here’s how many Americans have already gotten the new COVID-19 vaccine
At least 1.8 million people in the United States have already received the new COVID-19 vaccine, according to Reuters.
Citing data compiled by a North Carolina-based health care analytics firm, IQVIA Holdings Inc., the news agency reported the total was for the week ending Sept. 22 and may not have included some shots given at community vaccination sites and doctors’ offices.
“It feels like a good number,” Michael Kleinrock, senior research director at the IQVIA institute told Reuters Friday, noting that previously, the public health emergency and vaccine mandates helped drive demand.
“The imperative to be vaccinated was part of the public discussion to a much greater degree,” Kleinrock said. The COVID-19 pandemic emergency ended in the United States last spring.
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There hasn’t been an update to the vaccine since the fall of 2022, when a bivalant booster dose was released that targeted both the virus’ original strain as well as newer versions of the omicron variant that drove cases to record levels earlier that year.
Reuters pointed out that about two weeks after the bivalent booster was introduced last year, around 1.5 million shots had been administered, suggesting there may be more interest in the new vaccine.
More than 56 million people in the U.S. got the bivalent booster shot through last spring, 17% of the population, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In Utah, the uptake of the bivalent booster was less than 16%.
The latest COVID-19 shots, which received final federal approval on Sept. 12, are monovalent, going after only an earlier version of the virus that, like the variants currently circulating, is also linked to omicron.
People in Utah and the rest of the country have run into problems with finding the now-commercialized vaccine and, in some cases, with insurers unprepared to cover the cost as required.
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The updated shots, recommended for everyone 6 months and older, follow a nationwide uptick in COVID-19 indicators that led to what’s been called a “dramatic” climb in cases and hospitalizations.
Starting in July, weekly hospitalizations started heading up and by early September, hit more than 20,000 for the first time since March. The most recent CDC data, for the week ending Sept. 23, put that number at just over 19,000, a 3.1% decline from the previous week.
In Utah, the seven-day average number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 was up over 5% for the week ending Sept. 28, to just over 72, according to data from the Utah Department of Health and Human Services.
