How many people are vaccinated in Missouri? Here’s where state ranks, NYT data show

Missouri ranks 44th in the country on its COVID-19 vaccination efforts among adults, according to a New York Times analysis.

Fifty-five percent of the state’s adults have had at least one dose. That lags behind the nation’s 66% rate.

Vermont leads in vaccination efforts at 85% while Kansas sits at 61%, coming in 31st on The Times’ list, which includes U.S. territories.

Missouri has administered 4,862,502 vaccine doses, according to the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services.

Forty-four percent of the state’s total population has received at least one dose, putting it 43rd in the country.

At 49.9%, Boone County has the highest rate of residents with at least one dose. Pulaski County has the lowest rate in the state at just 13.3%. Kansas City sits at 42.1%, according to state data.

“I think we are seeing progress, but it is going to be a continuous campaign,” Mayor Quinton Lucas said Wednesday during The University of Kansas Health System’s daily briefing.

Missouri has the highest rate of new infections in the nation with a 45% increase in cases over the past seven days, The Times reported.

Physicians at The University of Kansas Health System expressed concern about the Delta variant and encouraged people to get vaccinated.

“The story is always the same — if you get vaccinated, you can drop your numbers, you can be safer,” said chief medical officer Steve Stites. “If you’re not vaccinated, watch out. And the Delta variant is forecast now in the next several weeks to become the dominant strain in the U.S. It appears to be affecting these outbreaks in southwestern and northwestern Missouri.”

The highly contagious Delta variant has also been detected in wastewater samples from the Kansas City area.

Missouri has recorded 520,350 total cases including 9,250 deaths since the pandemic began.