The United States has finally reached President Joe Biden's goal of 70% of adults with at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, according to a White House official, nearly one month after the original July 4 deadline.

What You Need To Know

  • The U.S. reached President Joe Biden's goal of 70% of adults with at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, nearly one month after the original July 4 deadline

  • President Biden initially set the 70% goal in May after easily surpassing his original COVID vaccination benchmarks – 100 million shots in his first 100 days, which eventually became 200 million

  • But the White House acknowledged in late June that the U.S. would fall short of its goal

  • The milestone is a positive one amid rising COVID-19 cases nationwide, fueled by the highly contagious delta variant

White House COVID-19 Data Director Cyrus Shahpar announced the news on Monday, and also noted that the 7-day average of newly vaccinated Americans is the highest since July 4.

"Let's continue working to get more eligible vaccinated!" Shahpar wrote.

President Biden initially set the 70% goal in May after easily surpassing his original COVID vaccination benchmarks – 100 million shots in his first 100 days, which eventually became 200 million. But the White House acknowledged in late June that the U.S. would fall short of its goal. 

"Our fight against this virus is not over," Biden pledged at the time, and his administration has continued its push to get all Americans vaccinated against the deadly coronavirus – including last week introducing a requirement that all federal employees and onsite contractors must attest to their COVID-19 vaccination status or face regular testing and strict masking, social distancing and travel restrictions.

The milestone is a positive one amid rising COVID-19 cases nationwide, fueled by the highly contagious delta variant.

Nearly 60% of counties in the United States are at a "high" level of community transmission, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). In light of concerns about the delta variant, the CDC revised its guidance last week to recommend that fully vaccinated Americans once again mask up indoors in areas classified as having "substantial" and "high" transmission of the coronavirus. More than 78% of counties nationwide are classified as "substantial" or "high," per the CDC.

The U.S. also recorded its first day of more than 100,000 new COVID-19 infections in nearly six months.

White House officials on Monday reiterated their call for shots in arms, with CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky saying they have learned three things about the delta variant in the past few weeks: Not only is the variant more transmissible than previous strains of COVID-19, but it results in a high viral load that can be found in both vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals. 

Individuals infected with other strains of COVID-19, such as the alpha variant, will likely only spread the virus to two other people, Walensky explained. Those who contract the delta variant can spread the disease to as many as five other people, making it more than twice as transmissible as other strains.

"While we desperately want to be done with this pandemic, COVID-19 is clearly not done with us, and so our battle must last a little longer," Walensky said during a virtual briefing on Monday.

According to data from the CDC, Louisiana's case rate is more than 600 new cases per 100,000 residents, followed by Florida (500 new cases per 100,000 residents), Arkansas (400 new cases per 100,000 residents) and Mississippi (300 new cases per 100,000 residents).

However, earlier Monday, Shahpar noted that Louisiana is experiencing "a remarkable increase in the number of newly vaccinated people."

On Sunday, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the federal government’s top infectious disease expert, predicted on ABC’s “This Week” that “things are going to get worse,” although he said he believes enough people have been vaccinated to prevent case numbers from soaring as high as they were this past winter.

“If you look at the acceleration of the number of cases, the seven-day average has gone up substantially,” Fauci said. “You know what we really need to do … . We say it over and over again. and it's the truth: We have 100 million people in this country who are eligible to be vaccinated who are not getting vaccinated.”

“We are seeing an outbreak of the unvaccinated,” Fauci added.

When asked Monday if the federal government is downplaying the seriousness of breakthrough infections in vaccinated Americans, Fauci said they are not, adding that breakthrough infections "unusually result in hospitalizatin and death" from COVID-19. 

Even individuals who have previously contracted COVID-19 and may have leftover viral protections in their immune system should get the vaccine, Fauci said, as immunity from a different strain might not be effective against the delta variant.

"The recommendation still holds that even though you've been infected previously in the context of variants, it's a good idea to get vaccinated anyway," he said.