WASHINGTON — On the day that President Joe Biden had long anticipated as a milestone in the fight against the coronavirus, the White House hosted a celebration Sunday on the South Lawn to both commemorate the Fourth of July and herald the administration’s progress toward overcoming the pandemic.

Biden wanted Americans to celebrate too, after enduring 16 months of disruption in the pandemic and more than 605,000 deaths.

The White House encouraged gatherings and fireworks displays all around the country to mark — as though ripped from a Hollywood script — the nation’s “independence” from the virus.

“The Fourth of July this year is different than the Fourth of July last year,” Biden told reporters Friday. “And it’s going to be better next year.”

And there is much to cheer: Cases and deaths from COVID-19 are at or near record lows since the outbreak began, thanks to the robust U.S. vaccination program. Businesses and restaurants are open, hiring is picking up and travel is getting closer to pre-pandemic levels.

Still, it’s hardly a “Mission Accomplished” moment.

More than 200 Americans still die each day from COVID-19, a more infectious variant of the virus is spreading rapidly at home and abroad, and tens of millions of Americans have chosen not to get the lifesaving vaccines.

“If you’ve had the vaccine, you’re doing great,” said Dr. Mati Hlatshwayo Davis, an infectious disease physician at the John Cochran VA Medical Center and St. Louis Board of Health. “If you haven’t had the vaccine, you should be alarmed and that’s just the bottom line, there’s no easy way to cut it.

“But that doesn’t take away from the fact that this country is in a significantly better place,” she said.

In bringing together about 1,000 people Sunday for the largest planned event of Biden’s presidency, the White House has been forced to walk a fine line, striving to signal progress toward restoring normalcy while still acknowledging the dangers of a pandemic that continues to claim hundreds of lives a day.

For months, the White House had July 4 circled as a breakthrough moment in the pandemic, the point at which many restrictions could be lifted if the country met ambitious vaccination targets.

The celebration at the White House included a fireworks viewing and a barbecue honoring attendees — a group of first responders, essential workers and service members, many of whom will be vaccinated and able to go without masks in accordance with guidance released in May by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The outdoor event “is being done in the right way,” White House COVID-19 response coordinator Jeff Zients said Sunday, and “consistent” with CDC guidelines.

The White House was not requiring vaccinations but was asking guests to get a COVID-19 test and to wear a mask if they are not fully vaccinated.

“For as much work there still is to do, it’s so important to celebrate the victories,” Davis said.

The Biden administration has been forced to concede in recent weeks that many challenges lie ahead in fighting the pandemic.

While the White House once targeted July 4 as the date that at least 70% of adults would be at least partly vaccinated, officials acknowledged last month that they would almost certainly miss that goal as the vaccination rate has plummeted from a peak in April.

And while 20 states, Washington, D.C., and two territories exceeded the 70% mark last week, the country’s progress as a whole has slowed significantly, with only about 1 million doses now being administered each week on average.

On Sunday, roughly 67% of adults had received at least one shot, according to figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Officials insisted that the miss would have little practical effect on Americans’ ability to mark the holiday.

What concerns them more is the emergence of two disparate realities: the gap between heavily vaccinated communities where the virus is dying out and lesser-vaccinated ones where the new delta variant is taking hold.

The variant has raised concerns among public health officials, who fear that new outbreaks could occur in parts of the country where vaccination rates have stayed comparatively low and that the variant could mutate in ways that leave even vaccinated Americans vulnerable.

About 1,000 counties have a vaccination rate below 30%, and the federal government is warning that they could become the next hot spots as virus restrictions ease.