SEATTLE — Washington’s percentage of the population that’s been vaccinated against COVID-19 is higher than the national average.
And that number is only expected to grow as the largest civilian-led vaccination site in the country opens here at Lumen Field this weekend.
“We are continuing to make incredible progress on vaccines,” said Dr. Umair Shah, State Secretary of Health.
Over 2 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been given and the goal of 45,000 doses in a day has been met in Washington. The progress is evident.
“Really we’re trying to everything we can to get vaccines into the arms of Washingtonians as quickly as possible,” Shah said.
So, here’s how Washington compares to the rest of the country. According to data from the CDC, we’re ranked 27th out of all 50 states with 19.3% of the population receiving at least one dose of the vaccine.
The top state is New Mexico at 26.1%. The bottom state is Georgia with 13.4%
And what about our neighbors to the south and east? Oregon ranks 32nd with 18.6%. And closer to the bottom, ranking 44th, is Idaho, with 17.3%.
But what do all these numbers say about our state?
Dr. Ali Mokdad, with UW’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, said Washington is doing well.
“If you look at the West Coast for example, Washington is doing much better than California and then when you compare to other states and in the country, some states in the south, southeast are not going a great job getting the vaccines out as soon as they receive them,” Mokdad said.
“This actually puts us ahead of the average numbers across the country,” Shah said.
While Washington is below half of the other states, we beat the national average for percentage of the population vaccinated by .5%.
- US Average: 18.8%
- Washington: 19.3%
While it is going well in Washington state, Mokdad says there’s still a lot to be done.
“Washington state could do better simply if people in Washington state remain vigilant until we reach herd immunity. Right now, we’re not vaccinating children because the vaccines are not authorized for children and we need to be very careful. And also, we need to address in Washington, some vaccine hesitancy,” he said.
The site at Lumen Field is starting with 5,000 vaccinations a week but it has the capacity to 150,000 a week as soon as supply meets demand.