US draws close to 100M vaccinations as baseball resumes

The U.S. moved closer Thursday toward vaccinating 100 million Americans in a race against an uptick in COVID-19 cases that is fueling fears of another nationwide surge just as the major league baseball season starts and thousands of fans return to stadiums.

More than 99 million people have received at least one dose of the vaccine, and more than 56 million people — 17% of the nation's population — have been fully vaccinated, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

A total of 154 million vaccines had been administered as of Thursday. President Joe Biden's new goal is to give 200 million vaccine doses during his first 100 days in office.

But coronavirus infections are inching up again, and officials have warned that they could ban fans from ballparks if the numbers continue to rise. Even before the baseball season got underway, an opening game was postponed after a player tested positive for the coronavirus.

The Washington Nationals were scheduled to host the New York Mets on Thursday night, but after a Nationals player tested positive for COVID-19, the team canceled the game. It was not immediately rescheduled.

At American Family Field in Milwaukee, Tonia Smith said she didn’t have any safety concerns about returning to the stadium where the Brewers were facing off against the Minnesota Twins. The stadium limited attendance to about 16,000 fans — a quarter of its capacity.

“It was hard to judge how quickly to get here. It’s a different opening day experience. But just having those smells hit you, walking in and having that experience back, it’s invigorating,” said Smith, 45, of Sussex, Wisconsin.

In Chicago, officials warned that they will stop letting baseball fans into Wrigley Field and across town at Guaranteed Rate...