U.S. Maps of COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution Allocations
(Updated on January 20th, 2021)
It has been more than a month since Americans aged 16 and above received the first doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine (Pfizer for short), one of the two COVID-19 vaccines currently available in the United States. The other vaccine, named Moderna, was authorized four days later (on December 18th) for use on people aged 18 and above. The Department of Health and Human Services published two datasets, one for each vaccine, of the numbers of doses allocated each week to different states and jurisdictions. Let’s have a quick look at these numbers by visualizing them in a series of two graphs and four maps. (For more information on the datasets, please visit the links at the end of this article.)
Allocations for First Doses Versus Those for Second Doses
Both Pfizer and Moderna are administered in two-dose series. American Samoe, Guam, and the Marina Islands receive both doses simultaneously. For all other states and jurisdictions, the second doses may be ordered at the same time as the first, but are not distributed until 21 days (for Pfizer) or 28 days (for Moderna) later, which is when the second doses are to be administered.
The following graph shows the total allocations for first doses versus second doses across all states and jurisdictions. The number of first doses are slightly higher than that of second doses. Note that, in the dataset, the number of second doses is counted toward the number of first doses for the jurisdictions that receive both simultaneously. With regard to the proportion of each vaccine, there are more Moderna allocations than Pfizer allocations, but only by 0.85% of the first doses (or 277,575 doses) and 0.84% of the second doses (or 272,225 doses).
Cumulative Total Number of Allocated Doses by Week
As seen in the following graph, the biggest increase in the total number of vaccine doses occurred in the week of December 21st, which was the first week that saw Moderna in action. In fact, during that week, allocations of Moderna were 2.88 times those of Pfizer (11,938,600 versus 4,143,750 doses). Since then, allocations have been steady week after week — on average, 4,455,750 Pfizer doses and 4,191,560 Moderna doses per week. This explains the declining percentage increases in the cumulative total number of doses (from a 42.63% increase in the week of December 28th to a 15.18% increase in the week of January 25th).
Maps of Distribution Allocations
Let’s now move on to maps of the total allocations across weeks. We have a map for Pfizer allocations, one for Moderna allocations, and one for total allocations across both vaccines.
All three maps tell us the following:
- California receives the highest number of vaccine doses (7,326,550 in total), followed by Texas (5,019,300 doses) and then Florida (4,010,650 doses). This is not surprising considering both the sizes of and the numbers of COVID-19 cases in these states.
- In general, states on the East Coast and in the East North Central region receive more doses than do states on the West Coast and in the West North Central. On the West Coast, after California, Washington is the next state with the highest number of vaccine allocations, but its number (1,428,900 doses in total) is still below those of Ohio (2,204,450 doses), Pennsylvania (2,170,100 doses), and New York (2,149,350 doses) — see map below for a zoomed-in look at the East North Central, Northeast, and South Atlantic regions).
Final Thoughts
The visualizations in this article offer a very quick look at the allocations of COVID-19 vaccine doses across the United States. There are, of course, many factors associated with those numbers, such as state population, number of cases, state budget, etc. Still, we can look at the graphs and maps in this article to get a sense of how the vaccines are being distributed and used all over the country. According to Worldometer, the current U.S. population is more than 332 million, about 5.09 times the total number of vaccine doses allocated (65,243,000 doses). Hopefully the vaccine allocations will soon catch up with the population, so that everyone living in the U.S. can get the much needed protection against the disease that has been interfering with our everyday lives for over a year.
To access the datasets, please click on the following links:
For information about COVID-19, visit https://www.cdc.gov/.
