Vaccinations against Covid-19 accelerate, but new cases continue to rise

The supply of Covid-19 vaccines in the United States is increasing every week and the pace of vaccinations is accelerating. States are also opening vaccine eligibility earlier, allowing more Americans to get vaccinated.

And yet, with so many people vaccinated – nearly 30% of all Americans have had at least one vaccine, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – the number of new cases of Covid-19 is on the rise.

Nationally, the seven-day average of cases has fallen in recent weeks from more than 53,000 cases per day to 65,000 cases. That’s down from the peak in early January, when the number of recorded cases was over 250,000, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of data from Johns Hopkins University. But an average of 65,000 cases is still considered high by epidemiologists and is close to the height of the country’s second outbreak in July 2020.

Federal officials have warned for weeks of a fourth outbreak of infections, saying the United States is on track to follow some other European countries that have seen recent spikes. CDC Director Rochelle Walensky spoke of her “recurring sense” of “imminent doom” during a White House press briefing on Monday.

In interviews with epidemiologists and public health officials across the country, common themes emerged that explain the increase in cases. Many have cited a mixture of rising infections among young people, pandemic fatigue, mixed messages about public health measures with the retreat of restrictions and the spread of more contagious variants.