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Long-term care facilities — places that care for the most vulnerable, high-risk populations — now account for close to 40% of all U.S. deaths due to the virus. "It is an American tragedy," said Elaine Ryan, vice president for state advocacy and strategy at AARP. "The states need to redouble their efforts to make sure that vaccines are being administered as quickly as possible." Only about 14% of the first shots distributed to long-term care facilities have gone into someone's arms via the federal pharmacy partnership, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Stone, 1/5)

Doses have been distributed behind the government's initial schedule – 15 million, instead of the 20 million doses promised to be delivered by the end of 2020. About 70% of those doses are sitting on pharmacy shelves, according to government data, and only about 14% of doses destined for nursing home residents and caregivers have been injected. Although vaccination is off to a rough start, it's not too late to turn the situation around, according to experts such as Kelly Moore, deputy director of the Immunization Action Coalition, an education and advocacy group. To do so will require a host of improvements, including more money, additional staffing and greater experience with vaccines that have been shown to be safe and effective but not so easy to use. (Weintraub, 1/5)

Federal officials and drugmakers, faced with a slower-than-expected rollout of the coronavirus vaccine, are racing to find ways to expand the supply, looking at lowering the required dosage and extracting more doses from the supplies they have. Just weeks into the vaccine program, scientists at the National Institutes of Health and the drugmaker Moderna are analyzing data to see if they can double the supply of the company’s coronavirus vaccine by cutting doses in half. The study, though long planned, is increasingly urgent in the face of looming shortages as the country tries to fight off a surging pandemic. (Stolberg and LaFraniere, 1/5)

Maryland is taking steps to speed up the slow pace of vaccination rollout by adding additional people into the top tiers of its coronavirus vaccine priority groups and ensuring hospitals use every available dose, Gov. Larry Hogan (R) said Tuesday. Phase 1A, which is ongoing, will now include all licensed and certified health providers, as well as first responders like firefighters, police and EMS. (Weixel, 1/5)

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Tuesday called on President Donald Trump and President-elect Joe Biden’s incoming administration to exponentially increase the number of COVID-19 vaccines given to cities, saying the current distribution is not enough. “If you want to have us bend this curve, and give people confidence that they can resume their normal lives, there must be an exponential increase in the amount of vaccine that’s available to cities and towns all over the country,” Lightfoot said. (Pratt, Buckley, Yin and Munks, 1/5)

South Dakota has administered the highest percentage of COVID-19 vaccines it has received, according to the CDC's COVID-19 vaccine distribution and administration data tracker. ... Here are the states ranked by the percentage of COVID-19 vaccines they've administered of those that have been distributed to them, based on data updated Jan. 5. (Adams, 1/5)

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released data Monday tracking the progress made by states to administer COVID-19 vaccine. (Bajak and Rodriguez, 1/5)