U.S. COVID-19 Cases Rising Again, Doubling Over Three Weeks

Addis Ababa, July 14, 2021(Walta) –The COVID-19 curve in the U.S. is rising again after months of decline, with the number of new cases per day doubling over the past three weeks, driven by the fast-spreading Delta variant, lagging vaccination rates, and July 4 gatherings.

Confirmed daily infections in the country climbed to an average of about 23,600 on Monday, up from 11,300 on June 23, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. And all but two states – Maine and South Dakota – reported that case numbers have gone up during the past two weeks.

“It is certainly no coincidence that we are looking at exactly the time that we would expect cases to be occurring after the July Fourth weekend,” said Dr. Bill Powderly, co-director of the infectious-disease division at Washington University’s School of Medicine in St. Louis.

At the same time, parts of the country are running up against deep vaccine resistance, while the highly contagious mutant version of the coronavirus that was first detected in India is accounting for an ever-larger share of infections.

Nationally, 55.6 percent of all Americans have received at least one COVID-19 shot, according to the country’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The five states with the biggest two-week jump in cases per capita all had lower vaccination rates: Missouri, 45.9 percent; Arkansas, 43 percent; Nevada, 50.9 percent; Louisiana, 39.2 percent; and Utah, 49.5 percent.

Amid the rise, health authorities in places such as Los Angeles County and St. Louis are begging even immunized people to resume wearing masks in public. And Chicago officials announced on Tuesday that unvaccinated travelers from Missouri and Arkansas must either quarantine for 10 days or have a negative COVID-19 test.

Meanwhile, the Health Department in Mississippi, which ranks dead last nationally for vaccinations, began blocking posts about COVID-19 on its Facebook page because of a “rise of misinformation” about the virus and the vaccine.

Mississippi officials are also recommending that people aged 65 and over and those with chronic underlying conditions stay away from large indoor gatherings because of a 150 percent rise in hospitalizations over the past three weeks, according to CGTN.

Dr. James Lawler, a leader of the Global Center for Health Security at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, said bringing back masks and limiting gatherings would help. But he acknowledged that most of the places seeing higher rates of the virus “are exactly the areas of the country that don’t want to do any of these things.”

President Joe Biden has had success vaccinating older Americans, while young adults in the country have shown less urgency to get the shots.

As of Wednesday, the U.S has reported over 33.9 million COVID-19 cases, with 607,763 deaths, according to the latest data from Johns Hopkins University.