The US government has over-counted the number of Americans who have received at least one dose of coronavirus vaccine, Bloomberg reported on Sunday.
It means that millions more people remain unprotected against the COVID-19 infection amid a surge in Omicron cases, state health officials reportedly said.
Last week, the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) revised the share of people aged 65+ with at least one shot and reduced the proportion from 99.9 percent to 95 percent. It did not, however, alter the total number of administered shots. Previously, CDC data said 240 million people had been vaccinated against COVID-19 at least once, or about 72.5 percent of the population. But now the agency says only 203 million are fully vaccinated, or 61.3 percent.
It's likely that 37 million Americans only have one shot and have not completed their vaccination against COVID, health officials said. The CDC admitted that the government has regularly and incorrectly counted booster shots and second doses as first doses.
The CDC added that it is continuing to review the data.
Earlier this week, US President Joe Biden warned that the unvaccinated will pay the price. “For unvaccinated, we are looking at a winter of severe illness and death," he said while commenting on a surge in cases caused by the Omicron strain.