US Covid-19 cases rising again, doubling over 3 weeks

A city run vaccination site in a Brooklyn neighbourhood which is witnessing a rise in COVID-19 cases on Tuesday in New York City. Pic/AFP

The Covid-19 curve in the US is rising again after months of decline, with the number of new cases per day doubling over the past three weeks, driven by the fast-spreading delta variant, lagging vaccination rates and Fourth of July gatherings.

Confirmed infections climbed to an average of about 23,600 a day on Monday, up from 11,300 on June 23, according to Johns Hopkins University data. And all but two states - Maine and South Dakota - reported that case numbers have gone up over the past two weeks.

"It is certainly no coincidence that we are looking at exactly the time that we would expect cases to be occurring after the July Fourth weekend," said Dr Bill Powderly, co-director of the infectious-disease division at Washington University's School of Medicine in St. Louis.

At the same time, parts of the country are running up against deep vaccine resistance, while the highly contagious mutant version of the coronavirus that was first detected in India is accounting for an ever-larger share of infections. Nationally, 55.6 per cent of all Americans have received at least one Covid-19 shot, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Also read: Relentless Covid duty taking a toll on doctors' sleep: Study

US awaits nod for vaccines to India

The United States on Tuesday said it is ready to ship its Covid-19 vaccines expeditiously when it has the green light from the Indian government which has told the Americans that it needs further time to review legal provisions related to accepting vaccine donations. "We are ready to ship those vaccines expeditiously when we have a green light from the Government of India," State Department Spokesperson Ned Price told reporters at his daily news conference. The Biden Administration has announced to share 80 million doses from its domestic stockpile with other countries. In recent weeks, the US vaccines have landed in countries across the world, including Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh. However, the Indian government is yet to clear the necessary legal hurdles for such an emergency import.

Strong antibody response with single dose of Sputnik V

A single dose of the Sputnik V vaccine may be enough to elicit strong antibody response against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, in already infected people, according to a study published on Tuesday in the journal Cell Reports Medicine.

Weekly virus cases at nearly 3 million globally, says WHO

The World Health Organisation reported there were nearly 3 million coronavirus cases globally last week, a 10% increase that was accompanied by a 3% rise in deaths, reversing a nine-week trend of declining Covid-19 incidence. In its weekly report issued on Wednesday, the UN health agency says the highest numbers of new cases were from Brazil, India, Indonesia and the United Kingdom.

1,73,145
No. of new cases reported globally in the past 24 hours

18,72,96,646
Total no. of cases worldwide

40,46,470
Total no. of deaths worldwide

Source: WHO/Johns Hopkins

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