Washington Has Administered 90% Of First Vaccine Doses

WASHINGTON — As the effort to vaccinate America continues, Washington has hit another vaccination milestone: administering 90 percent of its first vaccine doses.

According to an update from the Centers for Disease Control Tuesday, most states, including Washington, have hit the 90 percent benchmark. A few stragglers, like Alabama, New Hampshire, and Kansas, have only administered 70 to 79 percent of first doses. None of the 50 states have fallen below 70 percent, though some U.S. territories like the Virgin and Marshall Islands are below 60 percent.

The news is yet another sign that Washington's recent push to boost the number of daily vaccinations is gaining ground. As of the latest update to the state's COVID-19 data dashboard, Washington administered an average of 26,857 vaccinations every day last week. That's shy of the Department of Health's goal to give 45,000 daily doses but significantly higher than just a few weeks prior when the state averaged between 13,000 and 15,000 daily doses.

State efforts to increase vaccinations include the creation of four mass vaccination sites and the deployment of the Washington National Guard.

It's worth noting that the 90 percent administered doses statistic does not include second doses. As the CDC explains, their data only pertains to vaccines specifically issued to be the first of two doses.

That may explain why Washington self-reported that 78.84 percent of its total doses have been administered. Because that percentage is lower than the CDC's data on first doses, the implication is that Washington is lagging in delivering second doses to patients who've already received their first shot.

Still, local health leaders say it's a good sign that Washington is moving in the right direction.