cases in the US peak at six months and Florida suffers from regrowth

Seven U.S. states with the lowest Covid-19 vaccination rates (Florida, Texas, Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi) account for half of the nation’s new cases and hospitalizations in the past week, according to the Covid-19 coordinator of the White House, Jeff Zients.

“We are seeing terrifying trends in our hospitals,” the county judge wrote, Lina Hidalgo, On Twitter. She is the principal official of Harris County, the most populous county in Texas and home to the city of Houston. “At this stage, if you are not vaccinated by choice, you are complicit in this crisis”, added.

To combat the delta surge, the United States plans to donate booster shots for Americans with weakened immune systemssaid on Thursday Dr Anthony Fauci, America’s leading infectious disease specialist.

A day earlier, he warned that cases could double to 200,000 a day because of the variation in the coming weeks.

The United States joins Germany, France and Israel in giving booster shots despite a request from the World Health Organization (WHO) to wait until more people around the world can receive their first injection.

FLORIDA EMERGENCY

Florida, now the national hotbed of new infections, set a new hospitalization record on Thursday with 12,373 beds occupied by confirmed patients with Covid-19, according to data from the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). More children are hospitalized with the virus in Florida than in any other US state.

Louisiana and Arkansas are also treating a record or near record number of coronavirus patients occupying beds., according to a Reuters count.

In other places, Virginia became the third state after California and New York on Thursday to require vaccinations or weekly tests for all state employees. Vaccinations are only required for certain New Jersey government employees.

More and more private companies are also requiring vaccinations for their employees and customers. As the Delta expands, some companies are also delaying the return of workers to the office.

Amazon.com, which originally set Sept. 7 as the return date, said Thursday it would not expect employees at U.S. companies to return to the office until next year, according to an internal memo viewed by Reuters.