US breaks record for most COVID-19 vaccines administered in a day

The United States set the world record for highest number of COVID-19 vaccinations administered in a single day on Friday, according to the White House.

In a tweet, White House COVID-19 Data Director Cyrus Shahpar announced that the U.S. administered almost 3.4 million doses on Friday, passing the country’s previous daily high of 2.9 million on March 12.

Just in, a new daily record! +3.38M doses reported administered, over the total yesterday. 7-day average now 2.62M/day.

— Cyrus Shahpar (@cyrusshahpar46) March 26, 2021

The record-breaking news comes one day after President Biden doubled his previous goal of administering 100 million vaccines during his first 100 days in office. On Thursday, Biden announced he’s upping the figure to 200 million vaccines.

“That’s right: 200 million shots in 100 days,” Biden said. “I know it’s ambitious, twice our original goal. But no other country in the world has even come close, not even close to what we are doing. I believe we can do it.”

The U.S. passed Biden’s initial goal of 100 million administered doses given on March 12.

As of Friday, 48,695,172 people are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, or 14.7 percent of the U.S.’s total population, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The same stats show that 89,559,225 people, or 27 percent, have received at least one dose of the vaccine.