New Hampshire has administered the highest percentage of COVID-19 vaccines it has received, the CDC’s COVID-19 vaccine data tracker reported Tuesday, yet another sign of the Granite State’s comparative success.
The numbers, reported by the healthcare monitoring site Becker’s Hospital Review were:
New Hampshire
Doses distributed to state: 843,385
Doses administered: 796,674
Percentage of distributed vaccines that have been administered: 94.46
The Granite State was also tops for the highest percentage of residents to have received at least one shot as of April 4, though at 41.9 percent the lead over New Mexico (41.2 percent) is narrow and those numbers can fluctuate daily. New Hampshire was also the first New England state to open the vaccination process to all adults (16 years and up), well ahead of President Joe Biden’s April 19 federal mandate for every state to do so.
Among the states that have yet to meet the New Hampshire standard: California, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, and the District of Columbia, all of which are still limiting vaccinations by age.
While Gov. Chris Sununu is obviously pleased with the success, he offered a muted response to the latest numbers. “These rankings are a snapshot in time and we don’t put too much weight in them because reporting and delivery timing may vary, sometimes in our favor and sometimes not,” he told NHJournal in a statement.
The COVID death rate in New Hampshire is the eighth lowest (92 per 100,000 population), it’s still about twice as high as Maine (55/100k) and Vermont (37/100k). The Green Mountain state trails only Hawaii (33/100k) for the fewest deaths per capita in America.
Not surprisingly, New Hampshire Democrats — who fear Sununu may unseat Sen. Maggie Hassan in the 2022 election cycle — have been pushing a more negative narrative, highlighting missteps at mass vaccination locations and problems in the early days of the vaccine sign up process (New Hampshire has since abandoned a federal sign-up system for the state’s own VINI website.)
And there are continuing concerns about the COVID-19 outbreak at the New Hampshire Veterans Home in Tilton. In a two-month period last last year, 93 residents and 99 staff members tested positive and 37 residents died.
Meanwhile, New Hampshire’s economy continues to rebound from the COVID lockdowns faster than the rest of the nation. The latest Bureau of Labor Statistics report showed a 3.3 percent unemployment rate, the sixth-lowest in the U.S. And last month an analysis of taxes, spending, and government efficiency found New Hampshire taxpayers are getting the best tax-dollar “return on investment (ROI)” in the nation for the second year in a row.
And this week’s new revenue numbers show the state has avoided a budget catastrophe many people feared a year ago.
The COVID-19 pandemic has taken its toll on the Granite State, but the numbers show New Hampshire continues to outperform the nation.
