More than 10 million Floridians have been vaccinated for COVID-19

TAMPA, Fla — Florida recently passed a very important milestone in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic. As of Tuesday, June 1, more than 10 million Floridians have received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine, according to the state's department of health.

Since health officials gave vaccines the green light for emergency use back in December, they have been a useful metric in tracking how well the nation is fairing against the virus. The end goal of vaccinations is to help states reach a level of herd immunity. What that means is a majority of the population is immune to an infectious disease, slowing down the rate at which it spreads.

So, if 80 percent of a population is immune to the virus, four out of five people would be unlikely to get sick if they encountered someone who has been infected, possibly unable to spread the disease any further.

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While the end of the pandemic feels like it's within reach, scientists still are pointing to a magic number of fully vaccinated Floridians before the state declares herd immunity.

According to Johns Hopkins University, 50 to 90 percent of a population would have to be immune to a disease in order to reach herd immunity. And while there's no exact percentage for COVID-19, scientists estimate 70 percent would be the threshold.

Florida's population is around 21.5 million. So, in order to reach herd immunity, roughly 15 million people would have to be fully vaccinated.

Despite the 10 million milestone, Florida is only halfway there. Only 8,322,901 Floridians are fully vaccinated, meaning they've received the second dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine, or the one-shot Johnson and Johnson vaccine.

As of Tuesday's report, 2,280,764 of the state's vaccinations took place in the greater Tampa Bay area.  

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