White House officials on Monday said that about 80 percent of U.S. adults have received at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose, and about 70 percent of adults are fully vaccinated. Jeff Zients, the Biden administration’s COVID-19 response coordinator, said during a briefing that the statistical benchmark suggests the United States is making progress on the pandemic. Previously, Zients and other Biden administration officials have suggested that mandates and vaccine passport systems are the reason why vaccination numbers have increased. “These are important milestones,” Zients said. “We know vaccines are the very best tool we have to accelerating our path out of the pandemic.” It comes as the White House released more guidance on how federal contractors should handle mandates, appearing to give them expanded flexibility. Some trade associations, in recent weeks, have warned that COVID-19 mandates could trigger chaos across shipping and supply lines, while some have asked the White …