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The surge in the spread of coronaviruses in the United States takes the number of cases to highs not seen six months ago. For much of last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported daily case counts of over 100,000, with Thursday’s high of nearly 147,000 not seen since late January.
The United States led the global ranking of new cases reported with more than 38,400 new illnesses on Sunday, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. Iran followed with less than 37,000 reported cases.
The outbreak comes amid the rapid rise of the delta variant, which the CDC predicts to represent the majority of coronaviruses in the United States.The death toll is also rising, with the 804 new deaths on Friday, a record never seen since the end March, when the seven daily moving average deaths was 700. By Friday, the average had risen to 544 daily deaths.
Health systems across the United States have warned that the demographics of COVID-19 patients have changed from previous waves, which experts say is likely due to high vaccination rates among the elderly. In Florida, for example, health officials said 36% of deaths from COVID-19 were in people under the age of 65, while compared to the previous year, that number was around 17%.
“The younger ones feel like they’re kind of invincible,” Dr. Leana Wen, professor of public health at George Washington University and former Baltimore health commissioner, told The Associated Press. “Unfortunately, however, some people in hospital are going to die and that means some people are younger; and as you have seen, these are people in some cases who are leaving young children.”
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On Sunday, Dr Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, warned that unvaccinated people were “sitting ducks” for the delta variant, and warned that the recent increase showed no signs of slowing down.
“It is going very strongly on the rise with no sign of having peaked,” he said, adding that the United States may decide in the coming weeks to offer booster shots to Americans this fall. .
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His comments come days after the CDC said people with moderate to severe immunosuppression may be given a Pfizer or Moderna COVID-19 booster injection due to concerns about diminished protection.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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