These 5 figures show how serious the wave of Covid-19 in the United States is. But the experts say we can make a difference

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“This wave that we are currently going through has all the potential to be – and already appears to be – the worst wave we have faced so far,” former US Surgeon General Dr Jerome Adams said in a live online interview. with the Washington Post on Tuesday.

But we don’t have to get there. Health officials say the key to turning things around quickly is to get more shots.

“If we work together, we unite as a country, vaccinate everyone who is interested and unvaccinated, and put on our masks to prevent disease, we could really control that in a matter of weeks,” said the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of the United States, Dr. Rochelle Walensky told CNN Thursday.

If that doesn’t happen, Walensky warned, the United States could soon see the same daily case levels as in January – several hundred thousand a day.

Here is where we are now.

The average number of cases has increased nine-fold since early July

The seven-day U.S. average of daily Covid-19 cases on Friday was over 107,100 – the highest average in nearly six months, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

The last time the average daily cases exceeded 100,000 was on February 11. Average daily cases have increased nine-fold since early July.

Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in South Dakota: A 'Warning Tale' in the Covid-19 Era
Most cases come from areas with low vaccination rates, White House Covid-19 response coordinator Jeff Zients said during a Covid-19 briefing on Monday. A third of all U.S. cases the previous week were from Florida and Texas, he said.

“The frustrating part is that this is all preventable,” Dr. Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, told CNN’s Pamela Brown on Thursday. “If we had really stepped up in May and June and fully immunized the country… we wouldn’t have to worry so much.”

Surges have been particularly strong in the South, including Florida and Louisiana, where Walensky said Thursday there have been “exponential increases” in cases that do not appear to have reached their peak yet.

Healthcare workers leave after a shift at a Covid-19 driving test site in Tropical Park in Miami on Friday August.

Hospitalizations are at their highest since February

More than 66,000 Americans were hospitalized with Covid-19 across the country on Saturday evening, according to data from the US Department of Health and Human Services.

Hospitalizations for Covid-19 in the United States have not been so high since February.

“Today we retrace our steps towards the edge of a cliff. It is quite conceivable that we could once again head towards a public health disaster,” said Justice Lina Hidalgo in Harris County. , Texas, at a press conference Thursday. At this conference, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner announced that the Texas Medical Center campus in Houston admitted more than 300 Covid-19 patients in one day.

Florida, which dominates the country in the number of adults and children hospitalized for Covid-19, had 12,373 adults and 143 children hospitalized as of Thursday, according to CDC data.
Data released by the Florida Department of Health on Friday showed the state reported a record 134,506 new cases of Covid-19 in the past week, for an average of 19,215 cases per day. The previous record was Jan. 8, with a total of 125,937 cases reported over seven days, for an average of 17,991 cases per day, according to data from Johns Hopkins.
Louisiana officials on Friday reported a record 2,421 people hospitalized with Covid-19 statewide – breaking the previous state record that had been set a day earlier. Of the state’s hospital patients, about 91% are unvaccinated, officials said earlier in the week.

Arkansas last week reported a record 25 critical care beds available statewide. In Mississippi, health officials said Wednesday that only six intensive care beds were available.

Covid-19 cases of children and adolescents jumped 84% in one week

Nearly 72,000 new cases of Covid-19 in children were reported during the week between July 22 and July 29, the American Academy of Pediatrics reported on Tuesday – a substantial increase from the previous week, when about 39,000 cases were reported, and nearly five times what was reported at the end of June. The definition of a child varies from state to state, but generally includes children up to the age of 17 or 18.
Baby girl with Covid-19 airlifted 150 miles due to hospital bed shortage in Houston

“I don’t think this virus is necessarily targeting children or teens, I think what happened is, I think what you are seeing in the South right now is a wildfire, and everything is happening. is engulfing it, including teens, including the younger ones, ”Hotez told CNN on Thursday.

“The way you stop this is to vaccinate so many people,” he added. “The more you can vaccinate, you can actually slow down the transmission.”

The alarming increase comes as schools across the country prepare to welcome students back to class, while taking the safest route. While children under 12 are still not eligible for an injection, some states require students to mask themselves – while others have banned school mask warrants.
Leaders across the country are taking different steps to help protect America’s youngest people. Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said the state will distribute KN-95 masks to children and Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson has called a special session of the Arkansas Legislature to amend a law passed to “end mandatory face covering requirements”. He said he regretted signing the bill, adding that local school districts should be given the option to add protection for children under 12, who cannot be vaccinated.
On Friday, an Arkansas judge temporarily blocked the application of the law.

Delta variant accounts for 93% of Covid-19 cases in the United States

Behind the country’s latest wave is the Delta variant, which now accounts for more than 93% of coronaviruses circulating in the United States, according to CDC data. This includes several Delta sublines, all of which are classified as variants of concern. The number is even higher in parts of the country, including Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska, where Delta accounts for more than 98% of the circulating virus.

These figures show a rapid increase in the prevalence of the variant in the United States. At the end of May, the CDC estimated that Delta accounted for around 3% of new Covid-19 cases.

An internal CDC document last month said the variant appears to cause more serious illness and is about as transmissible as chickenpox.

“It’s serious,” Walensky told CNN. “It is one of the most transmissible viruses that we know of.”

Officials across the country have said the Delta variant is fueling the increase in their cases.

Mississippi health official Dr. Thomas Dobbs said Thursday the state has seen a “phenomenal increase” in daily cases that is “entirely attributable to the Delta variant, which is sweeping the Mississippi like a tsunami.” About 97% of new cases are in unvaccinated people, Dobbs said.

“We are seeing the unvaccinated in our population driving the current outbreak. We are seeing about 89% of our hospitalizations and 85% of our deaths unvaccinated.”

Nurses check a patient in the Covid-19 intensive care unit at NEA Baptist Memorial Hospital in Jonesboro, Arkansas, Wednesday, August 4.

Most Americans live in areas of high or high spread of Covid-19

More than 97% of Americans live in areas with “substantial” or “high” transmission of Covid-19, according to CDC data.
What the CDC is 'substantial' and 'high' Covid-19 transmission levels actually mean
The agency said late last month that even fully vaccinated people who live in these areas should wear masks indoors, to prevent further spread of the Delta variant. CDC guidelines for unvaccinated people remain that they should continue to mask themselves until they are fully vaccinated.
The terms “substantial” and “high” are part of the CDC’s system that measures the level of community transmission in a county based on two measures: new cases of Covid-19 per 100,000 people and the positivity rate.

Experts say knowing how much virus is circulating in a community can help residents understand the type of risk they take when choosing whether or not to mask themselves.

The good news

The numbers are grim, but there is good news: Vaccinations against Covid-19 are accelerating, with an average of more than 464,700 people starting their vaccinations each day as of Thursday, according to CDC data. It’s the highest average daily pace in nearly seven weeks – and a 19% increase from last week’s pace.
Half of US population fully vaccinated against Covid-19, official says

And seeing some of the biggest increases in immunization are several southern states, which for months have seen weak progress in immunization and strong reluctance to immunize. At the end of July, the average of new doses administered in Alabama was more than double what it was three weeks earlier.

Louisiana saw daily immunization rates jump 111% over the same period, while in Missouri, average daily immunizations increased 87%.

About 58.5% of the U.S. population has received at least one dose of the Covid-19 vaccine and about 50.1% are fully vaccinated, according to CDC data.

“The ultimate answer” to turning this tide is vaccination, emergency physician Dr Leana Wen told CNN’s Anderson Cooper on Friday.

“We know that what will stop the virus from gaining momentum and is really our only and best way out of the pandemic is to increase our vaccination rates,” Wen said. “If we have a high enough level of immunity in the United States, we can stop this virus from wreaking the kind of havoc it is.”

CNN’s Deidre McPhillips and Michael Nedelman contributed to this report.

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