Officials said most new infections occur in younger adults and are probably due to variants that spread quickly.
For the fourth week in a row, the number of cases and hospitalizations of COVID-19 has been rising in the United States, White House officials said Monday, while the death toll has been declining.
Rochelle Walensky, head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said there are now an average of 64,000 new cases of coronavirus each day, 7% more than the previous week. He said the deaths of 800 people a day have decreased.
Walensky said the increase in the number of cases occurs predominantly among younger adults, as states, businesses and schools have been gradually reopening. And it is believed to be caused, at least in part, by highly infectious variants.
Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said most new infections occur among younger adults and are caused by the spread of highly transmissible variants. [File: Susan Walsh/Pool via Reuters]
“As trends and data have been pointing out, cases are increasing nationally and we are seeing this happen mainly in younger adults,” Walensky said during a COVID-19 press conference.
“We know that these increases are due in part to more highly transmissible variants that we are closely monitoring,” he said.
Officials said that despite the increase in cases and hospitalizations, the nation has been making steady gains in its efforts to vaccinate Americans. According to the CDC, more than 165 million doses have been administered so far.
Andy Slavitt, a White House COVID-19 adviser, said the U.S. currently administers an average of 3.1 million doses a day. And that almost one in three adults has received at least one shot. He said 55% of the elderly, aged 65 or over, are fully vaccinated and 75% have received at least one dose.
“We’re going in the right direction,” Slavitt said during the briefing. “But we’re not there yet,” he warned.
“The war against COVID-19 is far from over, not even winning,” Slavitt said. “The worst thing we can do right now is confuse progress with victory.”
The United States has so far administered more than 165 million doses of vaccine [Lucy Nicholson/Reuters]
Many states have made steady progress in their vaccination efforts and several in recent weeks have extended eligibility requirements to anyone over the age of 16. Other states continue to vaccinate front-line workers and those with underlying health problems.
The United States has so far given emergency permits to three vaccines: Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson. The United States may also authorize the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, further increasing the national supply. The United States is projected to have a surplus of vaccines by the second half of 2021.
U.S. President Joe Biden, who took office in January, has set a goal for all states to offer vaccines to anyone who wants them before May. He also set July 4, U.S. Independence Day, as a date on which Americans should be able to return to normalcy.
More than 555,000 Americans have died from coronavirus, more than any other country in the world, according to a Johns Hopkins University account.