ATLANTA — From sports tickets to free beer, President Joe Biden is pulling out all the stops to get Americans vaccinated before July 4.
On Wednesday, the president announced multiple nationwide incentives as his administration nears their deadline to get 70% of adults vaccinated. The administration calling June a "vaccination sprint" as the U.S. appears to be on track to meet the Independence day deadline.
So far, 62.9% of adults have received at least one vaccine according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. However, experts said at least 30 states probably won't come close to that statewide percentage, including Georgia.
"The vaccinations have really slowed down in Georgia, despite the heroic efforts of vaccinators to bring vaccines to those where they need them," said microbiologist Dr. Amber Schmidtke.
The number of Georgians fully vaccinated only hit 33% as of Wednesday afternoon, and the the states been hovering in the low 30s for weeks now. At the same time, far fewer new COVID cases are being reported each day.
"In a lot of rural areas, there’s no cases to be reported. And that’s unclear whether there really is no cases or no testing is happening," explained Schmidtke.
Meanwhile, some of the incentives the Biden administration announced a includes free daycare at area YMCAs and giveaways from companies like Anhieser-Busch.
The Georgia's health department said it's working with business communities to possibly create employee incentives. They're also working with CORE to create community pop-up vaccine events throughout the state.