After a year of a mounting human and economic toll brought on by the pandemic, help is on its way.
Americans are being vaccinated at an average rate of 2.3 million per day and supplies are sufficient enough that states have begun to lower age requirements. So encouraging are these numbers that the White House has directed every state to make vaccines available to all adults by May 1.
The economy is poised for its fastest rate of growth since the 1980s.
Since the middle of December, roughly 110 million doses of the vaccines have been administered, with just over 11% of the U.S. population fully vaccinated with two doses, according to data from Johns Hopkins and Bloomberg.
Given the acceleration in vaccinations, the U.S. economy will be ready to reopen in the near term, which underscores our robust growth forecast for this year. The availability of mass vaccinations and the reopening of the economy will create the conditions for the best growth in the U.S. since at least the 1980’s, if not World War II.
Deaths, hospitalizations and cases
The vaccines are coming after the three worst months of the pandemic. American deaths attributed to COVID-19 infections claimed 83,000 lives in December, nearly 99,000 in January and nearly 67,000 in February.
But with nearly 21,000 deaths reported so far in March, those numbers are declining, and a sustained downward trend would conform to the drop in hospitalizations from its peak in the first week of January.
Overall, there have been 547,000 deaths in the United States, now averaging 1,300 per day, according to Worldometer data.
There have been nearly 30.1 million U.S. cases of COVID-19 infections. Newly reported infections now average 54,400 per day, with 7.4 million people currently infected, according to Worldometer estimates. That’s back to last October’s rate of spread.
But this human toll has been accompanied by an economic unraveling, one that will not be recovered overnight.
State-by-state analysis
Using data from Bloomberg News and Johns Hopkins, the table below shows state-by-state COVID-19 cases, deaths and vaccinations as of March 14.
For more information on how the coronavirus pandemic is affecting midsize businesses, please visit the RSM Coronavirus Resource Center.
