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There are growing signs that parts of the country may be close to meeting demand for the coronavirus vaccine — well before the U.S. has reached herd immunity. For the last few months, the primary focus of the U.S. has been getting shots to everyone who wants them, as quickly as possible. Soon, that focus will abruptly shift to convincing holdouts to get vaccinated. (Owens, 4/9)

When it comes to getting the coronavirus vaccine, Mississippi residents have an abundance of options. On Thursday, there were more than 73,000 slots to be had on the state’s scheduling website, up from 68,000 on Tuesday. In some ways, the growing glut of appointments in Mississippi is something to celebrate: It reflects the mounting supplies that have prompted states across the country to open up eligibility to anyone over 16. But public health experts say the pileup of unclaimed appointments in Mississippi exposes something more worrisome: the large number of people who are reluctant to get inoculated. (Jacobs, 4/9)

More than half of rural residents in the US have received a Covid-19 vaccine or plan to, but one in five still say they will definitely not get vaccinated, according to an analysis released Friday by the Kaiser Family Foundation. KFF researchers surveyed 1,001 adults living in rural America and found that 54% said they have received a Covid-19 vaccine or plan to. (Mascarenhas, 4/9)

Tending a thrift store that displays a faded Trump flag in a nearly all-white Alabama county with a long history of going against the grain, Dwight Owensby is among the area’s many skeptics of the COVID-19 vaccine. Owensby, 77, said he doesn’t often watch TV news or read the local paper, and he doesn’t spend much time talking about the pandemic with others — it’s just not a big topic in this rural, heavily forested part of the state. But he suspects the coronavirus pandemic was planned, as a discredited conspiracy theory holds, and he said there’s no way he’s getting any shot. (Reeves, 4/8)

So far 168 Oregonians have tested positive for the coronavirus despite being fully vaccinated against COVID-19, leaving 19 hospitalized and three dead -- figures so small that officials said they were “good news.” The case count means that of the 700,000 people who reached full immunity, just 0.024% got infected anyway. (Zarkhin, 4/8)

Some Yellowstone County residents may not have received their full second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine at the Shrine Auditorium vaccination clinic early Wednesday morning, according to RiverStone Health. Those who received a second dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine between 8 a.m. and 8:45 a.m. Wednesday may not have been given the full dose after a contracted pharmacist from another state may have incorrectly filled syringes, said John Felton, Yellowstone County public health officer during a press conference Thursday. (Hall, 4/8)

Treat Hardy wasted no time getting over to the Whittemore Center Thursday morning to line up for the first dose of his COVID-19 vaccine. The University of New Hampshire senior from Hebron is ready for life to return to normal — whatever that looks like, post-pandemic. “Junior and senior year with COVID has been a little bit of a loss,” Hardy said. (Schreiber, 4/8)

Walk-up appointments for the COVID-19 vaccine will be made available at the M&T Bank Stadium mass immunization clinic in Baltimore starting Friday. The University of Maryland Medical System, a copartner of the state-run vaccination clinic, said some 200 appointments will be open every day from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. to increase access to appointments for those who lack internet access or digital skills. Walk-ups will not be available on Orioles day game dates, when heavy traffic is expected in the parking lots near the stadiums. (Miller, 4/7)

Kevin Skeggs was smiling under his mask. The 24-year-old sat with his mom in the activity room of the Arc of Litchfield County in Torrington on Friday. Christine Skeggs briefly pulled back her son’s mask to show a big smile. He had a good reason — Kevin had just received his first dose of the coronavirus vaccine at a clinic set up by the state for residents with intellectual and developmental disabilities, or IDD. (Oshinskie, 4/7)