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Gounder: 'Vaccines are how we learn to live' with Covid
03:11 - Source: CNN
CNN  — 

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported on Monday that 70% of US adults have received at least one Covid-19 vaccination shot, reaching President Joe Biden’s July Fourth goal about one month late.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Monday that the White House is still “forging ahead” after meeting the goal, arguing that the milestone is a “significant step.”

When CNN’s Kaitlan Collins asked Psaki during the press briefing for Biden’s reaction to hitting the goal, Psaki said, “It was a goal he set – we set as an administration because we believe in bold, ambitious goals.”

“I would say it’s a significant step that we have hit 70% of people in this country, of adults, who are vaccinated. That’s a good sign. It will help protect communities. It will help protect families and save more lives. But we’ve said from the beginning, even as we set this goal, our work would not be done even when we reached it. And so we’re forging ahead,” she continued.

According to CDC data, 49.7% of the total US population is fully vaccinated, and 57.8% of the US population has received at least one dose. Of the Americans eligible to receive one of the three authorized Covid-19 vaccines – those people who are 12 years old and older – 58.1% are fully vaccinated and 67.6% have received at least one shot.

In total, 164.9 million people in the US are fully vaccinated and more than 346.9 million Covid-19 shots have been administered.