According to the CDC, blacks received 5.4% of shots despite national data showing that they made up 16% of health care workers and 14% of nursing home residents to groups prioritized for the first wave of vaccinations.

Whites received 60.4% of shots and accounted for 60% of health care workers and 75% of nursing home residents.

Data on race and ethnicity was only available on about half of the nearly 13 million vaccination shots given in the first month.

New York City on Sunday reported that while blacks make up 24% of the city's population according to 2019 data, they have so far sought and received only 11% off coronavirus vaccinations, please get vaccinated.

The data comes as top U.

S.

Infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci on Monday urged all Americans to get vaccinated as soon as possible to not only protect themselves but also prevent new variants of the virus from emerging.

You need to get vaccinated when it becomes available as quickly and as expeditiously as possible throughout the country, and the reason for that is that there is a fact that permeates virology, and that is that viruses cannot mutate if they don't replicate.

And if you stop there replication by vaccinating widely and not giving the virus and open playing field to continue to respond to the pressures that you put on it, you will not get mutations.

Vouches comment came as the 500 reported that the variant first discovered in the UK was found in 32 states, and another variant discovered in South Africa was found in two states, South Carolina and Maryland.

The 500 also reported that January saw the highest number of deaths from Cove in 19 than in any other month since the pandemic, with more than 90,000 deaths.