Today, Vice President Kamala Harris will visit Atlanta as she help launches the White House’s “month of action,” which was announced by President Joe Biden last week to urge more Americans to get vaccinated in the fight against COVID-19 before the July 4th holiday.
Included in the efforts are new incentives and steps to relax barriers and make the vaccines more appealing to those who haven’t received them. Harris is expected to announce “mobile education efforts” to reach Georgians who have yet to receive either the Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, or Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen vaccines. These measures are designed to meet President Joe Biden’s goal of at least 70% of Americans receiving one dose of the COVID-19 vaccines.
Harris’s visit to Atlanta comes as the South has been home to some of the lowest coronavirus vaccination rates in the country. According to an analysis last month by The Associated Press of data provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, eight Southern states were in the bottom 10, all of which are under 40%.
Mississippi was last at 32%, followed by Louisiana, Alabama, Wyoming, Idaho, Tennessee, Arkansas, Georgia, West Virginia and South Carolina.
Conversely, the White House confirmed 12 states have already given at least one shot to 70% of adults and more than 28 states and D.C. have fully vaccinated 50% or more of their adult populations. For example, the state of New York announced 70% of adults have received at least one dose of the vaccine. The state that once had the highest rate of infection now has the lowest in the country at 0.4%.
As of June 10, 6% of Georgia residents are in between their first and second doses. 35% of Georgians are fully vaccinated and 59% of the eligible Georgia population have yet to receive the vaccine, according to the CDC. However, 369 Georgians have contracted the Coronavirus yesterday, according to the Georgia Department of Health. Of the 369 people, 43 have been hospitalized and 21 people have died. There have been 4,078 active Coronavirus cases in the last two weeks in the Peach State.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, the Pfizer vaccine is available for people 12 years and older and requires two shots. The Moderna vaccine is available for ages 18 and up and requires two shots The J&J vaccine requires one shot.
