As the U.S. continues to increase the pace of its vaccination campaign, which now averages more than 3 million shots a day, those in the most vulnerable age group lead. About 75% of Americans 65 and older received at least one shot, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data, and more than half were fully vaccinated.
CDC director Rochelle Walensky said in a call to reporters on Monday that emergency department visits and hospitalizations related to the demographics of 65 and older are declining.
These trends are ‘good news regarding the power of vaccination,’ Walensky said.
US Covid business
After a drop in the daily number of cases due to Easter Sunday, when many states did not report coronavirus data, a Johns Hopkins University detective showed that the U.S. recorded about 79,000 new Covid-19 cases on Monday. The average of seven days of new daily cases is currently at 64,600, compared to the country’s low of about 53,000 cases per day at the end of March, but shows signs of plateau.
The demographics of those infected with the virus are changing, CDC director Rochelle Walensky told members of the media at a White House press briefing on Monday.
“As the trends in data have indicated, cases are increasing nationwide, and we are seeing them occur mainly in young adults,” Walensky said.
She added that many of the outbreaks in young people are related to youth sports and extracurricular activities. The risks of outbreak groups can be prevented through saturated testing strategies, Walensky said.
According to Walensky, the shifting demographic is a sign that vaccinations have an impact, citing a decline in visits to the emergency department and hospitalizations involving 65-year-olds. The majority of the age group received at least one vaccine shot.
US Covid deaths
According to Hopkins’ data, the seven-day average daily deaths from new coronavirus are nearly 800, well below the winter peak.
Walensky said it is not yet known enough whether new virus variants are more deadly.
“With these variants, we are still seeing increased transmissibility. We do not yet know about the increased diseases and deaths,” she said. “We still need to remain very vigilant regarding these variants.”
US vaccine shots given
According to the CDC, the US gives an average of seven days of just over 3 million Covid-19 vaccine intakes per day.
After four consecutive days of more than 3 million vaccine applications, Monday’s report yielded 2.1 million shots. Withuis Covid-19 Data Director Cyrus Shahphar wrote in a tweet that while Monday numbers largely reflect weekend vaccinations and therefore usually show lower numbers, Easter Sunday was also a reason for the lower-than-usual data reporting.
American part of the vaccinated population
Nearly a third of the U.S. population has received at least one shot of a Covid-19 vaccine, with 18.8% of Americans fully vaccinated, according to CDC data.