More than half of Alabama’s total population is now fully vaccinated against the coronavirus.
More than a year after the first vaccine doses were administered here, the state finally crossed the 50% threshold, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The news comes as omicron – the wildly contagious variant that caused the most recent virus surge here – is starting to fade away.
Even after crossing the halfway point, Alabama is still last in the nation in full vaccination rate. Standing at 50.1% fully vaccinated now, Alabama trails states like Wyoming (50.5%) and Mississippi (50.7%) at the back of the pack within the United States.
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Meanwhile, many states in the northeast continue to lead on this measure. In Vermont, more than 80% of the total population is fully vaccinated, meaning they’ve gotten at least two doses of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, or one dose of the less common Johnson & Johnson shot.
About 10% more of Alabamians got partially vaccinated, meaning they got just one dose from one of the two-dose series. Nearly 62% of Alabamians have gotten at least one dose of a two-shot vaccine. That means a significant number of people here got a single shot, then decided not to go back.
That 62% figure puts Alabama seventh from the bottom nationally, ahead of Wyoming, Mississippi, Louisiana, Idaho, Indiana and Tennessee.
Alabama also ranks near the bottom in terms of booster shots. Just over 34% of Alabama residents who completed a vaccine series have since gotten an additional booster dose, which has been shown to strengthen immune response against the virus. That’s third lowest in the nation, ahead of only New Hampshire and North Carolina.
Within Alabama, vaccination rates vary wildly from county to county, with Black Belt counties Lowndes, Marengo and Bullock leading the way, and Randolph, Cleburne and Russell counties taking up the rear.
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Nine of Alabama’s 67 counties are over 50% fully vaccinated. They include Jefferson and Madison counties, home of Alabama’s two largest cities, Birmingham and Huntsville.
They are, in order of full vaccination rate, Lowndes (56.3%), Marengo (53.8%), Bullock (53.7%), Madison (53%), Hale (52.7%), Shelby (52.7%), Perry (51.8%), Jefferson (51.7%) and Wilcox (50.6%).