US now averages 100,000 new COVID-19 infections per day

The United States now averages 100,000 new COVID-19 infections per day, reverting to a milestone last seen during the winter wave in another grim reminder of how quickly the delta variant has spread Across the country.

The United States averaged about 11,000 cases per day at the end of June. Now the number is 107,143.

It took about nine months for the United States to cross the average number of 100,000 cases in November before peaking at around 250,000 in early January. Cases hit a low in June but took about six weeks to return to above 100,000, despite a vaccine that has been given to more than 70% of the adult population.

The virus is spreading rapidly through unvaccinated populations, especially in the South where hospitals are overrun with patients.

Health officials fear the cases will continue to rise if more Americans do not adopt the vaccine.

“Our models show that if we don’t (vaccinate people) we could be up to several hundred thousand cases per day, similar to our increase in early January,” said the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. , Rochelle Walensky, on CNN. this week.

The number of Americans hospitalized with the virus has also skyrocketed and it has become so severe that many hospitals are scrambling to find beds for patients in remote locations.

Houston officials say the latest wave of COVID-19 cases is pushing the local health care system to almost “a breaking point”, forcing some patients to be moved out of town for medical treatment, including one who had to be taken to North Dakota.

Dr David Persse, who is the health authority for the Houston Health Department and the medical director of EMS, said some ambulances were waiting hours to unload patients at hospitals in the Houston area because no beds were available. Persse said he was concerned this could cause extended response times to 911 medical calls.

“The healthcare system right now is almost at a breaking point… For the next three weeks or so, I don’t see any relief over what’s going on in the emergency departments,” Persse said Thursday.

Last weekend, a patient from Houston had to be transferred to North Dakota for medical treatment. An 11-month-old girl with COVID-19 who was having seizures had to be rushed from Houston to a hospital 274 kilometers in Temple on Thursday.

In Missouri, 30 ambulances and more than 60 medical staff will be stationed statewide to help transport COVID-19 patients to other areas if nearby hospitals are too full to admit them, announced Missouri Governor Mike Parson Friday.