The pace of COVID-19 vaccinations in the U.S. has continued dropping, data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) show.
As of Wednesday, about 632,000 new doses are being administered per day, a figure not seen since late July.
Additionally, under 200,000 Americans are getting their first doses each day - the lowest this number has been since the beginning of the Covid vaccine rollout in December 2020.
States with low vaccination rates - such as Idaho and West Virginia - are facing overwhelmed hospitals, with unvaccinated patients taking up beds and preventing others from receiving care.
The Delta variant drove an increase in vaccinations, but that inoculation bump appears to now be over as case counts drop across the country.
Meanwhile, discussion of booster shots is causing further confusion about the need for vaccination, survey data suggest.
The pace of Covid vaccinations has continued falling in the U.S., with fewer Americans getting their first doses. Pictured: An Israeli woman receives a booster vaccine in Jerusalem, September 2021
An average of 632,000 vaccine doses have been administered each day for the past week
More than three-quarters of American adults have now received at least one dose of a Covid vaccine, according to the CDC.
About 77 percent of over-18s have received at least one dose, and two-thirds of adults are fully vaccinated.
Many Americans were motivated to get their shots in August and early September, as the highly-contagious Delta variant swept across the country.
When the variant hit states like Florida, Louisiana and Texas, the vast majority of severe Covid cases and deaths occurred among unvaccinated Americans.
Out of more than 180 million people who have been fully vaccinated, under 15,000 have had a Covid case requiring hospitalization, following their shots - and just 4,500 have died of Covid.
Despite clear evidence that vaccination provides excellent protection against severe Covid, the pace of vaccinations is once again slowing in the U.S. as case numbers drop.
The U.S. is now administering about 632,000 doses a day, according to the CDC.
That's a drop of about one-third since late August, when the U.S. was administering almost one million doses a day.
The pace of Americans getting their first vaccine doses has dropped even more starkly.
Under 200,000 Americans are now getting their first doses each day.
That's less than half the first dose rate of four weeks ago. In
