U.S. vaccination efforts have gotten a boost, thanks to increased supply.
The Covid-19 vaccination campaign, which reached single-day highs in recent weeks, has been boosted by drastically increased production from the three approved vaccine manufacturers, an NBC News analysis of Department of Health and Human Services data shows.
As pharmaceutical companies pump out more vials, the federal government doles out some of the doses directly to states, various pharmacy programs and even the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
A look at just the state distribution data shows the ramp-up from about 4 million first doses allocated in an average week in January to this week, when distributed first doses numbered more than 8 million.
About 39 million people, or about 12 percent of the population, have been fully vaccinated, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
As of Wednesday, 147 million shots had been delivered, according to the CDC. By the end of March, the number of shots produced is expected to be at least 200 million, and by summer it i expected to be 700 million, according to HHS.
President Joe Biden announced plans last week to buy 100 million doses from Johnson & Johnson, in addition to the 100 million doses that are supposed to be produced by the end of June.
An HHS spokesman said the Pfizer-BioNTech partnership is earmarked to produce 120 million doses by the end of March, with 80 million more to be delivered by the end of May. Moderna is contracted to have 200 million doses produced by then, as well.
Combined, the U.S. is on course to greatly accelerate vaccinations in the coming months.
Dose timeline
According to HHS, these are the contracted production targets for vaccine manufacturers:
Pfizer-BioNTech
- March 31: 120 million doses
- May 31: 80 million doses
- July 31: 100 million doses
Moderna
- March 31: 100 million doses
- May 31: 100 million doses
- July 31: 100 million doses
Janssen
- June 30: 100 million doses
- To be determined: An additional 100 million doses
CORRECTION (March 19, 2021, 9:50 a.m. ET): A previous version of this map miscalculated the percent of Americans who had been vaccinated. About 12 percent have been fully vaccinated, not 8 percent.