The surge in Covid-19 cases fueled by the Delta variant and vaccine hesitancy has now led to increasing rates of hospitalizations and deaths.
Data from Johns Hopkins University shows:
- The average number of new Covid-19 cases each day the past week was 32,278. That’s a 66% jump from the average daily rate the previous week, and 145% higher than the rate from two weeks ago.
- An average of 258 Americans died from Covid-19 each day this past week — up 13% from the rate of daily deaths the previous week.
- And 24,923 people are hospitalized with Covid-19, according to data from the US Department of Health and Human Services. That’s a 26% increase from last week and a 50% increase from two weeks ago.
There’s a common theme among those behind the worsening Covid-19 numbers, said Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention:
“This is becoming a pandemic of the unvaccinated,” Walensky said at a Covid-19 briefing [July 16].
More than 97% of people getting hospitalized with Covid-19 now are unvaccinated, Walensky said.
And 99.5% of deaths are among the unvaccinated, US Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy said [July 18].
