Nearly half of the new U.S. virus infections occur in just 5 states [Video]

Nearly half of the new coronavirus infections nationwide are in just five states – a situation that is putting pressure on the federal government to consider sending more doses to hotspots the way it distributes vaccines.

New York, Michigan, Florida, Pennsylvania and New Jersey together reported 44% of new COVID-19 infections, or nearly 197,500 new cases, in the most recent seven-day period, according to state health agency data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. is. . The total U.S. infections numbered more than 452,000 during the same week.

The large concentration of new cases in states that make up 22% of the U.S. population has prompted some experts and elected officials to urge the government of President Joe Biden to send additional doses of vaccination to those locations. So far, the White House has shown no signs of changing its policy of sharing the doses of vaccines based on population.

Sending extra doses to places where the number of infections is rising makes sense, says Dr. Elvin H. Geng, a professor of infectious diseases at Washington University. But it is also complicated. States that control the virus more successfully may see less vaccine.

“You do not want to make people wait, because they are doing better,” Geng said. “On the other hand, it only makes sense to send vaccines to where the cases are increasing.”

The increase in cases was particularly pronounced in Michigan, where the seven-day average daily new infections reached 7,719 cases on Sunday – more than double the number two weeks earlier. Only New York showed higher numbers. And California and Texas, which have much larger populations than Michigan, report less than half the number of daily infections.

Although Michigan has seen the highest number of new infections in the past two weeks, Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said she has no plans to tighten restrictions. She blames the increase in viruses due to fatigue in pandemic, which moves people more, as well as more contagious variants.

“Retiring would not fix the problem,” Whitmer said when she received her first vaccine Tuesday at Ford Field in Detroit, home of the NFL’s Lions. ‘What we need to do is really put our foot down on the vaccines’ and encourage people to wear masks, keep their social distance and wash their hands.

Whitmer got the chance the day after Michigan was eligible for everyone 16 and older. She asked the White House during a conference with governors last week whether it had considered sending extra vaccine to countries struggling with virus surges. She was told that all options are on the table.

In New York City, it is still difficult to address vaccinations. Mayor Bill de Blasio has publicly harassed the federal government over the need for a larger allotment of vaccines almost daily, a refrain he repeated when he spoke to reporters on Tuesday.

“We still have stock, supply, supply,” de Blasio said before adding, “But things are really getting better.”

At the state level, Governor Andrew Cuomo has not publicly called for an increase in vaccine allocations in New York, even though affairs have increased in recent weeks and hit the number of hospitalized people on a plateau.

In New Jersey, where the seven-day average daily new infections have risen over the past two weeks, from 4,050 daily cases to 4,250, Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy said he is constantly talking to the White House about the question of vaccination against coronavirus. Although he no longer said he was in favor of more vaccines due to the high infection rate of the state.

Vaccines to New Jersey have risen 12% in the past week, Murphy said Monday, though he questioned whether that was enough.

“We’re constantly watching, OK, we know we’re going to go up, but are we going up at the rate we should be, especially given the amount of business we have?” Murphy said.

New virus variants are clearly one of the drivers in the increase, says Dr. Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, chair of the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the University of California, San Francisco. The failure to suppress the increase in cases will result in more people becoming ill and dying, she said, increasing in other parts of the country.

“More vaccine should be where the virus is,” Bibbins-Domingo said, adding that people need to overcome the “scarcity attitude” that makes them think that pushing the vaccine in one place will hurt people elsewhere.

In Florida, relaxed precautions during a busy spring break season likely helped spread virus variants, said epidemiologist Jason Salemi of the University of South Florida. The state’s seven-day average daily new infections exceeded 5,400, a 20% increase over the past two weeks.

Although many new infections occur among younger people, Salemi said he is concerned about seniors in Florida. About 78% of residents 65 years and older have received at least one vaccine dose, but about 1 million more have not received any shots yet.

“We apparently have the stock,” Salemi said. “Aren’t these people planning to be vaccinated?”

The conversation about sending extra shots to some countries comes at a time when the number of daily infections in the US has dropped dramatically compared to an increase in January after the holiday season. However, the average of seven days of daily infections has been rising slowly since mid-March.

The five states that see the most infections stand out. As of Tuesday, 31 U.S. states have reported seven-day averages of less than 1,000 new daily cases.

White House co-ordinator Coronavirus coordinator Jeff Zients said Tuesday that more than 28 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine will be delivered to states this week. The allocation will bring the US more than 90 million doses in the past three weeks.

The news came when Biden announced that more than 150 million shots of the coronavirus had been administered since he entered service, and that by 19 April all adults would be eligible to receive a vaccine.

About 40% of American adults have now received at least one COVID-19 shot, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About 23% of American adults are fully vaccinated – more than half of Americans 65 and older are included.

Geng said the country needs to take a step back and go slow. Even just a few weeks of Americans sticking to social distance and other precautions can make a big difference.

“The message you are taking here is: let’s not jump the gun,” Geng said. ‘There is light at the end of the tunnel. We all see it there. And we will get there. Slow and steady. ”