The case tally of positive COVID-19 cases across the United States (US) has surpassed 95,000, a five-fold rise in less than a month.
The highly contagious Delta variant of COVID-19 driving a sharp rise in states of the US with low coronavirus vaccination rates.
The states are Florida, Texas, Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi, according to President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 coordinator, Jeff Zients.
Of those states, Florida and Texas account for about a third of new coronavirus cases and an even higher percentage of hospitalizations in the country.
“Driven by the more transmissible Delta variant, these cases are concentrated in communities with low vaccination rates,” Zients said.
Although 70% of adults across the country have received a single vaccine jab, in Mississippi that figure is only 40%. Louisiana and Alabama have similar figures: 43 and 44%, respectively.
Zients said several states with low vaccination ratios have been making a recent push to vaccinate more people, and in the past 24 hours, 864,000 doses have been administered nationwide.
“Vaccinations are the best line of defence against COVID and the Delta variant,” Zients said. “We’re doing everything we can to get shots in arms,” he added.
“We’re seeing terrifying #COVID19 trends in our hospitals,” County Judge Lina Hidalgo wrote on Twitter.
“At this point, if you’re unvaccinated by choice, you’re complicit in this crisis.”
On the other hand, the increasing number of infections aroused more private-sector companies to require vaccines for employees and customers.
Amazon.com, which had originally set September 7 as the return to office date, said it would not expect U.S. corporate employees to come back until next year.
