COVID-19 cases have tripled in the United States in the past two weeks

COVID-19 cases have tripled in the United States in the past two weeks, amid a flood of vaccine misinformation, with the ensuing pressure on hospitals and exhausted doctors.

In the United States, the seven-day moving average of daily new cases has risen over the past two weeks to more than 37,000 on Tuesday, from less than 13,700 on July 6. according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

Health officials attribute rebound to delta variant and slowing vaccination rates. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), only 56.2% of Americans have received at least one dose of the vaccine.

On the other hand, New York has taken a first step towards compulsory vaccination of its hospital staff: now thousands of employees of the city’s public hospitals will have to be vaccinated or tested every week, proof of the growing concern over the Delta variant.

This is the first time that America’s largest metropolis, where around 58% of the population has already received at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine, adopt a measure which implies a certain obligation.

The rule will apply from August 2nd around 30,000 employees of the 11 municipal public hospitals.

Although staff still have the option of not getting the vaccine and getting tested every week“I have no doubt that this will inspire people to get vaccinated,” said the mayor, who hopes private hospitals will follow suit.

The announcement comes amid growing controversy over how to increase the vaccination rate against the Delta variant, which now represents 83% of cases in the United States, according to the latest estimates.

Some senior health officials want vaccination to be mandatory at the federal level, at least for certain categories of the population. But several Republican-led states have passed laws banning coercive measures, especially in schools.

At the end of June, the mayor of San Francisco made the vaccine compulsory for all municipal employees. But that made that decision conditional on full approval of the COVID-19 vaccines by the US drug-oversight agency, the FDA and this is not expected for several weeks.

Faced with the progression of the Delta variant, San Francisco has finally decided to impose vaccination from September 15 to its most exposed employees.

(With AP information)

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