As COVID-19 vaccination rates rise and case numbers fall in Massachusetts, some populations are proving harder to vaccinate than others. GBH's Craig LeMoult has taken a look at the latest statistics in Massachusetts and discussed them with GBH All Things Considered host Arun Rath. This transcript has been edited for clarity.

Arun Rath: So let's start with the latest vaccine numbers. Give us the rundown.

Craig LeMoult: Massachusetts continues to have one of the highest vaccination rates in the country. According to the CDC, 63.5 percent of people in the state have gotten at least one dose, which is second only to Vermont. Note that the denominator there includes everyone under the age of 12, who are not eligible to get a vaccine. So this is really impressive progress. According to last week's vaccine report, more than 3.2 million people are fully vaccinated in Massachusetts, and nearly 90 percent of people over age 65 have had at least one shot.

Rath: I've gotten both my shots now. You just had your second shot this week, right?

LeMoult: I did. This week, I had my second shot. No side effects at all. I was actually kind of worried that meant that maybe my immune system isn't as strong as I thought it was. But I was talking with Dr. Paul Biddinger of Mass. General Brigham, who's the chair of the state's vaccine advisory group, about that. He said no, it doesn't mean that. He actually didn't have any side effects either, he said. And he said it doesn't mean the shot didn't work, so I have nothing to worry about there.

Rath: That's good to hear. I was wondering as well. So kids ages 12 to 15 became eligible for vaccination this month. How are we doing generally for kids getting vaccinated?

LeMoult: About 16 percent of kids ages 12 to 15 have gotten their first shot, but it's only been a little over a week now, and Dr. Biddinger says he's looking at the number of kids who have appointments to get a shot, and he's not too worried about kids getting vaccinated in the state.

"There was concern that there might be some hesitancy by parents in the younger age ranges, and so far we haven't seen much of that," Biddinger said. "I think we've seen a pretty good rush to vaccination and hopefully what that of course will translate into is even lower numbers of new cases in the community."

And he says they think this fall, Pfizer may submit for emergency use authorization for kids six months and older.

Rath: There are a whole lot of parents whose ears just perked up at that. So what's the impact of all the vaccinations so far?

LeMoult: On the most important metrics, which are new cases, hospitalizations and deaths, the impact has been huge. The number of new cases has dropped dramatically. Gov. Baker laid out that progress in a call with GBH News.

"In January, we had 2,500 people in the hospital with COVID here in Massachusetts," Baker said. "Now we have about 340. We had sort of typical case rates, new cases every day that were north of sort of three and four and five thousand, and now we're down. We've been down below a thousand for almost two weeks."

And most importantly, since May 5th, Massachusetts' seven day average for deaths has consistently been in the single digits.

Rath: There's no getting around the fact that that's great news. But we've also talked about racial and ethnic disparities. I've got to ask you, how are we doing as far as disparities might go in terms of vaccinations?

LeMoult: It's really important to remember that we're not done with this pandemic, and it's especially being felt in some communities more than others. In the last two weeks, there were more than 800 new cases in Boston, over 400 in Springfield, over 300 in New Bedford, and more than 200 cases each in Lawrence, Brockton, Lowell and Worcester. When we look at who in those cities are getting vaccinated, we see real ethnic and racial differences. In Springfield, for example, nearly half of the population is Hispanic, but just 23 percent of that population has had their first shot, and 29 percent of Black people in Springfield have gotten a shot. That's compared to over half of white people there. From what we can tell, it's not just vaccine hesitancy, although that could be part of it. Even though there's now a sufficient supply of the vaccine. Dr. Biddinger says there are still issues of access.

"Some of the communities that were hardest hit are those who can't take off during the workday, can't travel very far necessarily to a vaccination site," Biddinger said. "So we need to continue to make sure that vaccines are available off-hours in very convenient locations in ways that support the real world that people live and work in."

Gov. Baker says the state's shift away from mass vaccination sites, which are set to close by the end of June, to more locally focused sites, should make a difference.

"We have a lot of work to do to locate people and to engage people where they are," Baker said. "That's one of the reasons why a big part of the campaign over the course of the past two or three weeks has moved more toward, you know, pop ups, which can go anywhere from supermarkets to community centers to churches."

So we'll be keeping an eye on those efforts in the coming weeks to see if they start to close some of those persistent gaps on vaccination.