As vaccine supply increases from the federal government, more states are opening up coronavirus vaccine eligibility. This week, California, Texas, Florida, and Georgia — the first, second, third, and eighth most populous states in the nation — announced that they would open up vaccinations to all adults in early April.
By mid-April, at least 21 states will allow all adult residents to sign up for COVID-19 vaccinations: Alaska, California, Connecticut, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and West Virginia. More could soon join: On Friday, Minnesota governor Tim Walz is expected to announce that all adults over the age of 16 can sign up for vaccinations as of March 30. More than a quarter of all Americans have now received at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine, according to the Centers for Disease Control, with a little over 14.3 percent of the population fully vaccinated.
In his first national address on March 11, President Joe Biden called for all states to open vaccine access to all adults by May 1. While the president’s initial goal was to administer 100 million vaccine doses by his 100th day in office, he doubled that goal on Thursday. “I know it’s ambitious, twice our original goal, but no other country in the world has come close,” he said, at the beginning of his first official press conference. The goal certainly seems possible thanks to the ramping up of vaccine production: At last week’s rate of 2.5 million shots per day, the nation would break past the 200 million mar just before Biden’s 100th day on April 30.
