In a race against rising coronavirus metrics, particularly given the new highly transmissible variants, the U.S. is rapidly ramping up its coronavirus vaccination campaign, in the hope of stopping potentially preventable virus-related deaths.
After weeks of steady declines following the winter surge, which claimed 200,000 lives in the 10 weeks between mid-December and late-February, many states are currently reporting increasing case and hospitalization numbers. And for the first time in nearly two months, the country’s daily death averages are ticking up.
In an effort to track the country’s rapidly changing coronavirus metrics, ABC News has launched a new dashboard using data collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for our audience to track the spread of infections in their home states as well as across the country. Readers can hover over the map of the U.S. to see case, hospitalization and death data on the state level.
The U.S. is now averaging over 70,000 cases a day, an increase of 31.5% over the last month as of April 16.
“I think we’re way too high to be thinking that we’ve won this race,” CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said during a White House coronavirus response team briefing on April 7.
Two dozen states and territories have seen increases of more than 10% in their daily COVID-19 case, hospitalization and death averages over the week of April 11, with many coronavirus infections being reported among younger populations.
Coronavirus variants also continue to spread rapidly across the country. B.1.1.7, the variant first found in the United Kingdom, accounts for 44.1% of all new COVID-19 cases as of March 27.
“The worst thing we could do now would be to let up. We cannot get complacent. We cannot let our guard down,” White House COVID-19 response coordinator Andy Slavitt said during a recent press briefing.
Readers can also select the tracker’s vaccination tab to see the status of their state’s vaccine rollout, including what percent of the state population is now fully vaccinated against the virus.
Nearly 25% of the total U.S. population, or 1 in 4 Americans, is fully vaccinated as of April 16, and on April 19, all American over the age of 16 will become eligible to receive a coronavirus inoculation, opening the vaccine floodgates to more than 255 million Americans.
While some states have had more success in their vaccine rollout — New Hampshire, New Mexico and Connecticut currently lead the country in vaccine doses administered per 100 — other states like Alabama, Mississippi and Georgia currently rank last as they struggle to get their populations inoculated.
Although the CDC and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently implemented an immediate pause on the use of the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine after discovering six patients in the United States were suffering from a rare and severe type of blood clot that developed about two weeks after the vaccine was administered, officials have assured that there are plenty of vaccines available for all U.S. adults.
The U.S. has secured enough Pfizer and Moderna doses for 300 million Americans, and Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla, announced on April 14 that the company will move their timeline forward, delivering 220 million doses to the U.S. by end of May, and the company’s 300 million doses, two weeks earlier than planned in mid-July.
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