The Delta variant has gained a foothold throughout all 50 U.S. states, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. The average number of daily cases last week hit 32,278, up 145 percent on the rate a fortnight ago.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said the number of hospitalizations increased by 50 percent in the past two weeks to about 24,923 a day.
More than 97 percent of people hospitalized with COVID-19 are unvaccinated, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
“This is becoming a pandemic of the unvaccinated,” CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky warned at a briefing Friday.
Additional to the worries about the unvaccinated, new data has shown that the Johnson & Johnson jab is less effective against the emerging variant.
Follow the Newsweek liveblog throughout Wednesday for all the latest.
Louisiana reported its third-highest daily COVID-19 case count since the beginning of the pandemic.
State health officials reported 5,388 new cases and 844 coronavirus-related hospitalizations Wednesday.
Only 36 percent of the state population is fully vaccinated.
Louisiana Governo John Bel Edwards said Friday that 97 percent of the state’s coronavirus cases and deaths since February have been in unvaccinated people.
“Numbers like this are avoidable, and we should be doing better,” he tweeted Wednesday.
At Baton Rouge General, there are currently 54 COVID-19 patients, up from 24 last week. Forty percent of those patients are under the age of 50.
The Louisiana Department of Health credits the spread of the Delta variant for the rise in cases and hospitalizations among unvaccinated people.
“Unfortunately, across Latin America and the Caribbean, only 15 percent of the people have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, and several countries, like Honduras and Haiti, have yet to reach even 1 percent,” PAHO Director Carissa Etienne said during a weekly news briefing Wednesday.
Etienne said low vaccine coverage in the region is leading to high infection rates.
Over the last week, the PAHO reported 967,000 new cases and 22,000 deaths in its region, a slight decrease from the previous week.
In countries with an adequate vaccine supply, such as Costa Rica, Uruguay, Chile and Argentina, COVID-19 cases are down. However, in places with low vaccine coverage, infections remain high.
Honduras, Guatemala and Cuba have seen a spike in cases and deaths, Etienne said.
“These trends illustrate how COVID-19 remains entrenched within our region, particularly in countries with low vaccination coverage. And the spread of variants only makes matters worse,” she said.
According to Etienne, 47 countries and territories have reported at least one “variant of concern.” Eleven have detected all four “most concerning” variants: Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta.
“The delta variant continues to make more and more trouble, and we’ve got to fight back,” de Blasio said. “We need a strong, clear approach – that every single one of our workers gets vaccinated or tested weekly.”
The new rule will go into effect on August 2 and applies to all employees at 11 public, city-run hospitals and clinical workers for the health department.
This includes doctors, nurses, social workers, custodians and registrars, City Health Commissioner Dave Chokshi said.
De Blasio said that this new policy is not a vaccine mandate, as each employee can choose to provide a negative COVID-19 test each week.
“Every single one of those employees has a choice,” he said, noting that a vaccination was the better of the two options. “This is about keeping people safe and stopping the delta variant.”
About 70 percent of hospital workers in New York City are vaccinated, just below the statewide average of 74 percent, according to the state health department.
Over 3.4 million new cases were reported globally between July 12 and July 18, a 12 percent increase from the week before.
There are over 190 million cases and over 4 million deaths reported globally, the report said. However, “at this rate, it is expected that the cumulative number of cases reported globally could exceed 200 million in the next three weeks.”
The number of cases continues to climb, despite efforts to roll out vaccinations.
“Despite efforts to extend vaccination coverage, many countries across all six WHO Regions continue to experience surges in Covid-19 cases,” the update said.
Indonesia, the United Kingdom, Brazil, India and the United States are reporting the highest number of cases.
The report also said that increases in transmissions are driven by the spread of more contagious variants, relaxed public health restrictions, increase social mixing and inadequate vaccine distribution.
The lambda variant was first detected in Peru in December 2020, according to the World Health Organization.
It makes up about 80 percent of COVID-19 cases sequenced in the country since April 2021, according to a June WHO report.
“We’re seeing an alarming spike in the number of COVID-19 cases across the Houston area, with the steepest increase happening over the weekend,” Houston Methodist said in a statement. “The increased hospitalizations add stress to many of our hospitals that are nearing capacity.”
This discovery comes as the country is currently fighting against the highly contagious Delta variant.
“I don’t think there’s sufficient evidence at this point that we should be more concerned about lambda than delta, I still think delta is the primary concern for us,” Dr. Wesley Long, medical director of Diagnostic Microbiology at Houston Methodist, told ABC News. “There’s a lot more evidence that we have that delta is much more contagious, the viral loads are much higher.”
About 50 percent of the Texas population is fully vaccinated. The hospital said the majority of the 185 people admitted with coronavirus were unvaccinated.
A shooter from Britain and two baseball players from Mexico were said the be asymptomatic.
“There are no words to describe how I’m feeling right now,” Amber Hill, Britain’s top-ranked shooter, said. “I don’t have any symptoms, I will now isolate as per the government guidance.”
Hill will be unable to attend the Games in Tokyo.
Baseball players Héctor Velázquez and Sammy Solís have been isolated in their rooms at the team hotel in Mexico City.
Read the full story here.
“The mark of success is making sure that any cases are identified, isolated, traced and cared for as quickly as possible and onward transmission is interrupted,” WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a speech to an International Olympic Committee meeting.
“The mark of success in the coming fortnight is not zero cases,” Ghebreyesus added. “There is no zero risk in life.”
According to the Associated Press, there are 79 Games-related COVID-19 cases in Japan this month. Additionally, many international athletes tested positive at home and are unable to travel.
In a joint statement, the companies said they signed a letter of intent with the Biovac Institute in Cape Town to immediately start on-site development, including transferring technology and installing equipment.
The companies said their annual vaccine production would exceed 100 million doses when the facility is fully operational.
“From day one, our goal has been to provide fair and equitable access of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine to everyone, everywhere,” Albert Bourla, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Pfizer, said in a statement. “Our latest collaboration with Biovac is a shining example of the tireless work being done, in this instance to benefit Africa.
Vaccination rates across Africa remain low.
According to the World Health Organization, only 1.5 percent of Africa’s 1.3 billion people are fully vaccinated.
“It is great and welcome news that must be celebrated in the context of this pandemic as every action counts,” John Nkengasong, the director of the African Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told CNN. “I see this as a part of the collective action to address technology transfer and intellectual property.”
He is the second U.S. athlete to have tested positive while in Japan, alongside Gymnast Kara Eaker, in addition to dozens of others due to a possible outbreak at the Olympic Village.
While organizers continue to push ahead, there are strong hints the Games could be scrapped altogether at the last minute if the COVID outbreak in Tokyo spikes.
Greene labelled the fine “arbitrary and capricious, an abuse of discretion, and otherwise not consistent with law or with principles of fairness.”
Congress may also be mandating face coverings as it contends with an outbreak of the Delta COVID variant, with a memo Tuesday suggesting clusters had been “detected in Washington, DC and in the Capitol building.”
Meanwhile, a White House staffer, also a press aide to Speaker Nancy Pelosi, also went off ill with COVID. They tested positive after meeting with a group of Texas legislators, six of whom have also contracted the virus.
Arkansas leads the country with the highest infection rate - and one of the lowest vaccination rates. But Governor Asa Hutchinson signed a ban on state-wide or city-wide mask mandates in April. The law isn’t due to take effect until the end of this month, however - it is unknown if that will still go ahead.
In California, an indoors and public transit mandate is in place if a person is not yet vaccinated. But a full mandate has been reintroduced in Los Angeles County, where the rate of new cases increased 300 percent and hospitalizations doubled since July 4. “This is a pandemic overwhelmingly and disproportionately of those that have not been vaccinated,” Governor Gavin Newsom said.
A heated debate is ongoing in New York City about the reintroduction of the mandate, with Mayor Bill de Blasio firmly against reimposing the measures. “No. Simple answer is no,” he said according to a New York Times report. “Masks have value, unquestionably. But masks are not going at the root of the problem. Vaccination is.”
READ MORE: New York Among Top 10 States For New COVID-19 Cases
Stick with Newsweek throughout Wednesday for all the latest.
“The message that we wanted to give was not that people shouldn’t get the J.&J. vaccine, but we hope that in the future, it will be boosted with either another dose of J.&J. or a boost with Pfizer or Moderna,” said Nathaniel Landau, a N.Y.U. Grossman School of Medicine virologist who led the study.
While the study has received neither peer review nor publication in a scientific journals, its conclusion align with previous findings that the similar single dose AstraZeneca vaccine is only around 33% effective in preventing symptomatic cases of the variant, the New York Times reported.
A daily average of 1,039 new cases are estimated to emerge over the course of the next week, according to a model by the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences’ Fay W. Boozman College of Public Health.
Infections among children under the age of 17 are also projected to increase, with estimates of 169 new cases per day, according to the model.
Dr. Jose Romero, Arkansas’ health secretary, warned against additional outbreaks when schools resume session this fall since legislation was enacted that prohibits schools from requiring masks and vaccination, the Associated Press reported.
“I expect to see this year significant outbreaks within the school system,” Romero said during a virtual conversation on vaccine reluctance hosted by U.S. News & World Report. “What’s already telling me that’s going to happen are the number of day care closures that have occurred because of outbreaks occurring, and camp exposures and closures occurring.”
In a memo sent to congressional staff Tuesday, Monahan revealed that the highly contagious variant was “detected in Washington, DC and in the Capitol buildings.”
A senior aide for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi tested positive for the virus Monday, a spokesperson for Pelosi told Forbes. Florida Rep. Vern Buchanan announced he had contracted the virus and was quarantining the same day.
For now, masks will remain optional in the Capitol, Monahan said, but the mandate may resume in the future if needed.
Clark County School District will require face masks for fourth and fifth graders but make them optional for students in preschool through third grade.
Students in sixth through twelfth grade and teachers who are vaccinated do not have to wear a mask.
The American Academy of Pediatrics is now recommending that schools require face masks for children older than 2 years old, regardless of vaccination status.
The White House’s COVID-19 Team labeled Clark County a “sustained hotspot” for new infections. County officials recommend people wear masks in crowded indoor places whether they are vaccinated or not.
“There’s just a sense of frustration,” Dr. Donald Williamson, president of the Alabama Hospital Association and former head of the Alabama Department of Public Health said. “The fact that cases are rising is a self-inflicted injury.”
Almost 500 people are being treated for coronavirus across the state, up more than 300 from last month, according to state data.
In addition to a lack of face masks and social distancing, only 31 percent of the people in the state are fully vaccinated and only 38 percent have received at least one vaccine dose.
Williams said only 50 people would be in the hospital currently is everyone who is eligible for a vaccine had gotten one.
“This is the plague of our generation, and certainly of our lifetime,” he said. “And now it could be so easily averted, but we’re failing to do that.”
While hospitalizations are down from the pandemic’s height in January, Williams said the rise of the Delta variant threatens to worsen the situation in the state.
“The Delta variant is serious and it is even a deadly threat to non-vaccinated Kentuckians,” Beshear said. “Vaccines are still offering significant protection against serious illness and death, including against the Delta variant. But we are seeing more cases among vaccinated Kentuckians because of the Delta variant.”
Dr. Steven Stack, the commissioner of the Kentucky Department for Public Health, said every death from this point forward “is preventable.”
“Delta is maybe 2.5 times more transmissible,” Stack said. “It’s spreading like wildfire.”
Beshear said younger residents are increasingly getting the Delta variants because they are the group less likely to get vaccinated. Vaccines in Kentucky are available for people 12 and older.
“Let’s make sure that we break through a myth: Kids can get COVID,” he said. “They do get COVID. And they’re contracting COVID at basically the same rate or generally the same curve, at least, as all other unvaccinated Kentuckians.”
Vaccine rates for all age groups have plateaued, however. Only about 2.25 million people in the state have received at least one dose. As people continue to hold large gatherings indoors and outside, cases and hospitalizations have increased for three straight weeks.
Beshear and Stack are encouraging all Kentuckians who are unvaccinated or work in a job with constant contact with others to wear a mask.
Alaska, Florida, Mississippi and Arkansas have all seen a substantial upward trend in new cases over the past two weeks, according to data from Johns Hopkins.
A spokesperson from the Arkansas Department of Health (ADH) confirmed to Newsweek that officials believe the Delta variant is contributing to the state’s increase of cases.
A report from the ADH last week found that the Delta variant accounts for 31.4 percent of Arkansas’ COVID-19 cases.
The vaccination rates in Alaska, Florida, Mississippi and Arkansas are some of the lowest in the country, with only 38 percent of people in Mississippi having received at least one dose of the vaccine.
In Arkansas, 44 percent of residents have received at least one dose, while 51 percent of Alaskans and 56 percent of Floridians are at least partially vaccinated.
Read the full story here.
Paul quested Fauci’s earlier statements that the National Institute of Health (NIH), which Fauci oversees, never funded gain-of-function research.
Gain-of-function research involves altering organisms or diseases as a way to increase transmissibility in order for scientists to better predict infectious diseases and develop vaccines.
“On May 11, you stated that the NIH has not ever and does not now fund gain-of-function research to the Wuhan Institute of Virology and yet, gain-of-function research was done entirely to the Wuhan Institute by Dr. Shi [Zhengli] and was funded by the NIH,” Paul said.
Fauci was quick to defend himself.
“Senator Paul, I have never lied before the Congress and I do not retract that statement,” Fauci said. “This paper that you are referring to was judged by qualified staff up and down the chain as not being gain-of-function.”
Fauci added, “Senator Paul, you do not know what you are talking about.”
Read the full story here.
“The best way to prevent the spread of COVID-19 variants is to prevent the spread of disease, and vaccination is the most powerful tool we have,” Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said during a U.S. Senate hearing Tuesday.
The Delta variant only accounted for about 50 percent of all coronavirus cases during the week of July 3.
“The message from CDC remains clear: The best way to prevent the spread of COVID-19 variants is to prevent the spread of disease, and vaccination is the most powerful tool we have. We must continue to expand vaccine coverage by building trust and confidence in COVID-19 vaccines,” Walensky said.
Read the full story here.
