United States: “deep concern” over increasing cases of covid | 135% increase in infections in the past two weeks

A senior public health official at United States Vivek Murthy said to be “deeply concerned” due to the health outlook for the coming months, as the Delta variant is growing rapidly and there is a portion of the population that continues to resist vaccination. In this context, defended order in Los Angeles reuse a mask inside and underlined the need for other regions to take the same action.

The concern, he explained, is greater about the arrival of autumn, since more people return to work and unvaccinated children return to school.

“In areas where the number of people vaccinated is low, or where cases are increasing, it is very reasonable for counties to take more mitigation measures like the use of masks seen in Los Angeles, and I predict this will happen in other parts of the country“, expressed Murthy in dialogue with the ABC channel.

Dr Murthy appeared in several news programs in the hours following the entry into force of the new measure which made the use of face masks compulsory. Angels, where an important increased infections: “In the last few days we have reached almost 1,900 cases and over 460 people are now in our (intensive care) units,” said Hilda Solís, member of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.

This measure, which so far is not replicated in any other US city – although Murthy believes that will change in the coming weeks due to the expansion of the Delta variant – was taken after the difficult situation that facing the United States: After several months of declining infections, the number of covid-19 cases has jumped 135% in the past two weeks, with increases seen in almost every state across the country.

To this is added the resistance of certain sectors to be vaccinated, stimulated in part by the disinformation circulates on social networks. “Platforms need to recognize that they have played an important role in increasing the speed and scale with which disinformation spreads,” Murthy told CNN.

“We don’t see enough progress there,” he added, coinciding with President Joe Biden and other government officials who have harshly criticized social media for their role in spreading misinformation about the covid-19.

Currently, only 48% of Americans are fully immune. According to Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), covid “is becoming the pandemic of the unvaccinated”, and cited as evidence that “97% of people hospitalized in June had not been vaccinated”.

In the past 24 hours, the United States has recorded 12,595 new cases and 83 deaths. Since the start of the pandemic, the country has accumulated a total of 34,032,403 infected and 608,152 deaths.