US daily COVID-19 vaccinations up 80 percent from July: White House

The average number of daily COVID-19 vaccinations in the US has jumped more than 80 percent since July, a Biden administration official said Tuesday.

Jeff Zients, the White House’s COVID-19 response coordinator, said there is currently a daily rolling average of 900,000 shots being administered, up from 500,000 in mid-July.

“That’s an 80 percent increase in the number of shots we’re getting into arms each and every day,” Zients said at a press briefing.

The country’s vaccination numbers have been on the rise partly because immunocompromised people were approved earlier this month to receive third doses, which are included in the White House figures.

But Zients said there also are more people receiving their first shot in response to new vaccine mandates across the country, as well as the spread of the highly contagious Delta variant.

“Tens of millions of Americans are now covered by vaccination requirements, and these requirements are already working to get more people vaccinated,” Zients said.

There were around 14 million Americans who received their first shot in August, about 4 million more than the previous month, Zients said.

The vaccine campaign momentum comes amid a seven-day rolling average in the past week of 129,000 daily new cases in the country, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Meanwhile, the seven-day average for virus-related hospitalization remained relatively steady 11,500 per day, data shows.