U.S. unlikely to hit Biden’s vaccination goal

The pace of people receiving COVID-19 shots has dropped to about 400,000 per day from almost 2 million two months ago. That puts the country on track to miss President Joe Biden’s goal of getting 70 percent of Americans at least one shot by July 4. As of Monday, more than half of U.S. adults were fully vaccinated.

How far away is Biden’s mark? About 16 million people would need to receive at least one dose in the next four weeks to reach the goal. More than a dozen states have already hit 70 percent of vaccinated adults, and about 12 others will probably get there by Independence Day. Meanwhile, the seven-day moving average of new cases in the United States continues to drop and has plummeted by more than 90 percent since the peak on Jan. 9.

Dig deeper: Read Charles Horton’s Q&A on COVID-19 vaccines.