And as coronavirus cases in many states appear to be rising again, the country is also administering vaccinations at a faster pace than ever, reports CNBC News.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is reporting over 3 million doses administered for three straight days for the first time, bringing the seven-day average of vaccine doses administered to roughly 2.7 million shots per day.
Public health officials in a number of states are saying that many of the new infections appear to be among younger age groups, according to CNN News.
“People over 65, a large proportion of them, have been vaccinated, are protected. That’s one of the reasons we have not seen a huge spike in hospitalizations,” Dr. Ashish Jha, dean of the Brown University School of Public Health, told CNN on Sunday. “A lot of the spread is happening among younger people … that’s the group that is moving around, kind of relaxing, getting infected.”
In Michigan, which is in the middle of another Covid-19 surge, according to Dr. Joneigh Khaldun, Michigan’s chief medical executive, “cases are increasing most in younger people, specifically the 10 to 19-year-old age group.”
Illinois is also seeing a worrisome trend in rising cases of the COVID virus. “Recent increases in hospital admissions and test positivity are concerning new developments and we don’t want to go down the same path we’ve seen before and experience a resurgence in the pandemic,” Dr. Ngozi Ezike, director of the Illinois Department of Public Health, said in a statement.
Also on Friday, Vermont officials reported the state’s highest single-day case total since the pandemic’s start, with more than 250 new reported infections. Dr. Mark Levine, the state’s health commissioner, said, “Our efforts to vaccinate Vermonters is a race against what the virus does best: move easily from person to person. Throughout the country, including up and down the Eastern Seaboard, case numbers are up.”
Cases are also on the rise in New Hampshire and in Pennsylvania, where health officials are warning people to keep their mitigation efforts going, by wearing masks and social distancing.
On Sunday, White House Chief Medical Advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci reiterated what health officials have been saying for months: “Premature” reopening measures throughout the U.S., along with “COVID-19 variants,” and a loosening of restrictions, like mask-wearing and social distancing, can be blamed for the spike in coronavirus cases.
Another reason for the rise in cases is the spread of the UK variant, B.1.1.7. It is now found in 51 regions in the U.S., according to the CDC, and is projected to become the dominant variant in the country by the end of March or early April.
