Nearly all Covid-19 deaths in the United States now are in people who weren’t vaccinated, a staggering demonstration of how effective the shots have been and an indication that deaths per day — now down to under 300 — could be practically zero if everyone eligible got the vaccine.

An Associated Press analysis of available government data from May shows that “breakthrough” infections in fully vaccinated people accounted for fewer than 1,200 of more than 853,000 Covid-19 hospitalisations. That’s about 0.1 per cent.

And only about 150 of the more than 18,000 Covid-19 deaths in May were in fully vaccinated people. That translates to about 0.8pc, or five deaths per day on average.