CHICAGO — Officials in at least 20 states have committed in recent days to opening coronavirus vaccine appointments to all adults in March or April, part of a fast-moving expansion as states race to meet President Biden’s goal of universal eligibility by May 1.
In Ohio, all adults will be allowed to seek shots starting March 29. In Connecticut, April 5. In Alaska and Mississippi, all adults are already able to book appointments.
And on Thursday and Friday, officials in Illinois, Kentucky, Rhode Island, Maryland, Missouri, Maine and Vermont said that all adults would be allowed in April to sign up for a shot, while the governors of Utah and North Dakota set universal eligibility to begin this month.
But even as the pace of vaccinations has accelerated to about 2.5 million shots each day nationwide, the country finds itself at a precarious point in the pandemic. Cases, deaths and hospitalizations have all fallen sharply from January peaks, yet infection levels have plateaued this month, at about 55,000 new cases a day. While governors relax restrictions on businesses like bars, indoor gyms and casinos, highly infectious variants are spreading and some states, especially on the East Coast, have struggled for weeks to make any progress in reducing cases.
“I think it is a race against time,” said Dr. Stephen J. Thomas, SUNY Upstate Medical University’s chief of infectious disease. “Every single person that we can get vaccinated or every single person that we can get a mask on is one less opportunity that a variant has.”
As parts of the country continue to see progress, many Americans are booking spring break trips, dining in newly reopened restaurants and replanning summer weddings that were abruptly canceled in 2020. On Friday, federal health officials relaxed a six-foot distancing rule for elementary school students, saying they need to only remain three feet apart in classrooms as long as everyone is wearing a mask. That move was intended to encourage more schools to open for in-person classes.
All the while, the path ahead — and public guidance about how people should behave in this moment — seems uncertain, even contradictory.
ImageModerna vaccines were administered at the Ingersoll Houses community center in Brooklyn on Saturday.
Moderna vaccines were administered at the Ingersoll Houses community center in Brooklyn on Saturday.Credit...Brittainy Newman for The New York Times
Though deaths have dropped considerably in New York, progress in reducing cases has stalled. The state has more recent cases per capita than everywhere except New Jersey, and the New York City metro area has the country’s second-highest rate of new infections, behind only Idaho Falls, Idaho.
“People will be reckless, I don’t know how else to say it,” said Carol Greenberg, a pet care worker in Jersey City, N.J., who said she worried that people were starting to act in ways that did not accurately reflect the number of new virus cases in that state, where more than 26,000 new infections were reported in the seven-day period ending Thursday.
Ms. Greenberg, 61, has been fully vaccinated, but her adult children have not, and she said she wondered whether all the reopening announcements of late were wise. In recent days, Gov. Phil Murphy urged a return to in-person instruction at New Jersey schools and announced a loosening of restrictions at restaurants, bars, salons and other businesses.
No vaccine has yet been authorized for use in people under 16, though trials are underway to see if they are safe and effective in children.
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Epidemiologists said they viewed the current moment in the pandemic as a sprint between vaccinations and newly confirmed cases of the virus, particularly infections that are spreading because of variants that can be more contagious. Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s top infectious-disease expert, warned Friday “that it’s really quite risky to declare victory before you have the level of infection in the community to a much, much lower level than 53,000 cases per day.”
“So it is unfortunate, but not surprising, to me that you are seeing increases in number of cases per day in areas — cities, states or regions — even though vaccines are being distributed at a pretty good clip of 2 to 3 million per day,” Dr. Fauci said.