In United States, COVID-19 cases and deaths increase, as do vaccinations – U.S. officials

WASHINGTON, Aug.2 (Reuters) – COVID-19 cases, along with hospitalizations and related deaths, have increased over the past week, US officials said Monday, even as vaccination rates rise amid concerns over the highly contagious variant of the Delta.

“We remain concerned about the continued increase in cases, driven by the Delta variant,” said White House COVID-19 response coordinator Jeff Zients, noting that cases were concentrated in communities with low rates of disease. coronavirus vaccination.

One in three cases nationwide has occurred in Florida and Texas last week, he told reporters on a conference call.

Meanwhile, more and more people have been vaccinated due to the spread of the variant.

Zients said that in recent weeks there has been an almost 70% increase in the average number of new people vaccinated each day. Three million Americans had received their first injection in the past seven days, and the country reached the milestone of 70% of adults who received at least one vaccine injection on Monday.

“There are still about 90 million eligible Americans who are not vaccinated, and we need them to do their part,” he said.

United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Dr Rochelle Walensky said as of Saturday there were about 72,000 new cases per day of COVID-19 in the United States, an increase of 44% compared to the previous week and above the peak established in summer 2020.

Hospital admissions rose 41% and deaths jumped to 300 per day, a 25% jump, she said.

“While we desperately want to end this pandemic, COVID-19 is clearly not done with us. And so our battle has to go on a little longer,” Walensky said.

The White House is working with states to encourage vaccinations using incentives, following President Joe Biden’s call last week for states to use federal funds to pay $ 100 to anyone vaccinated, Zients said.

He said the White House’s policy of urging all federal employees to get vaccinated or have weekly COVID-19 tests helped push more workplaces to implement similar policies for their employees, adding that vaccination requirements for returning to work or school were a growing trend.

Walensky said the CDC is encouraging people who have decided to receive a third booster shot to share their data with government scientists.

“If people have taken the initiative to get their third shot – again, it’s not recommended yet – but we have the capacity and are looking at that data right now,” Walensky said.

Reporting by Jeff Mason and Carl O’Donnell; Editing by Chris Reese and Dan Grebler

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