The Race Towards Full Vaccination?

Scientists initially estimated that 60 to 70 percent of a population would have to acquire resistance to Covid-19 in order for herd immunity to take effect, a threshold that has been revised upwards since the start of the year with 80 to 85 percent quoted in some cases. The Delta variant has changed the fight against Covid-19 significantly, making the race towards full vaccination increasingly urgent but also harder. Israel and the United States initially led the way, according to Our World in Data, though other countries have now overtaken them. As studies have suggested that the efficacy of vaccines could wane faster than expected, early adopters seem especially at risk right now.

The UAE is one of the countries which has had sustained success at vaccinating its population. The country vaccinated 88.4 percent of its people fully while Singapore even reached 91.9 percent coverage. China vaccinated 74.5 percent. In the United States, not even 60 percent of the population has been fully vaccinated, with Brazil, among others, recently surpassing the country's vaccination rate. The EU average vaccination rate now stands at 66.7 percent. Austria, where large protests against a general vaccine mandate took place over the weekend, is still below that at 64.4 percent of the population fully vaccinated.

Vaccinations in Russia are still only progressing slowly and have reached 36.7 percent of the population which is fully vaccinated and 43.5 percent who have received at least one dose. Nigeria's share of the fully vaccinated population stands at just 1.6 percent and is emblematic of Africa's lack of vaccine doses.

Full vaccination refers to all doses prescribed by the respective vaccination protocol, with data only available for countries reporting the breakdown of their doses.