USA: COVID-19 Cases Reach Record-Breaking Heights of 40 Million with 4 Million Counted in the Last 4 Weeks Alone
The United States has now recorded a total of 40 million COVID-19 cases with more than 4 million tallied during the last 4 weeks alone. This is according to the data gathered by Johns Hopkins University.
Despite the huge surge of cases, the count only represents the official count of reported positive cases, and many experts conjectured that the actual number of infections is much higher.
Data shown by Johns Hopkins University, the country’s seven-day average of new cases Monday (137,270 daily) was more than four times higher than Labor Day of last year (39,355 daily).
The rise of cases can be attributed to the overcrowded hospitals, and recently the rise of infection in children as many of them return to their classrooms.
More children have needed emergency room visits and hospitalizations in states with lower vaccination rates, according to a recent study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“The way you protect children who, because of their age, cannot get vaccinated yet is to surround the children — be it friends, family, school teachers, personnel in the school — surround the children with vaccinated people,” the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases told CNN on Sunday.
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Last week, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky urged unvaccinated Americans not to travel during the holiday, as well as the vaccinated individuals saying that the high rate of virus transmission means that it would be risky for them to travel as well.
The most notable difference between this year and last year is the occurrence of the highly transmissible Delta variant. Another is that Americans over 12 years can get highly effective COVID-19 vaccines, which experts consider as the best defense against the virus.
“Here’s the important thing: Everyone that I’m hospitalizing is not vaccinated. We are, by and large across the country, not needing to hospitalize people that have gotten both doses of the vaccine,” Dr. Megan Ranney, professor of emergency medicine and associate dean at Brown University’s school of public health, said. “This is a disease of the unvaccinated right now.”
Alabama, Wyoming, Idaho, Mississippi, and West Virginia all have less than 40% of their populations vaccinated, according to the CDC. Two of those states, Alabama and Mississippi, are also contending with their more than 90% ICU utilization.
Georgia, Arkansas, Texas, and Florida join those states in less than 10% ICU capacity, according to data from the US Department of Health and Human Services.
“The takeaway for everyone is getting your shots and certainly wear a mask for that added layer of protection if you’re in public indoor spaces right now,” Ranney said.
