One in 5 COVID-19 cases over the previous two weeks has been detected in Florida, a White House adviser mentioned Thursday.
Jeff Zients, the Biden administration’s coronavirus response coordinator, mentioned that the Sunshine State accounted for round 20 % of your entire nation’s new confirmed cases.
(*1*) Zients mentioned at a press briefing.
Meanwhile, round 40 % of new infections this week got here from simply three states — Florida, Texas and Missouri, Zients mentioned.
Currently, round 47 % of individuals in Florida are totally vaccinated in opposition to the virus — decrease than the nationwide common of practically 49 %, in response to the Mayo Clinic.
A White House adviser acknowledged one out of each 5 COVID-19 cases over the previous two weeks has been in Florida.Getty Images
Meanwhile, Texas and Missouri have solely totally vaccinated round 43 % and 40 % of their populations, respectively, the info exhibits.
In New York, simply over 56 % of its inhabitants is totally immunized in opposition to the virus.
“Importantly states with the highest case rate are actually seeing their vaccine vaccination rates go up,” Zients mentioned, including that Florida had a better vaccination fee final week than the nationwide common.
Florida has had one of the vital relaxed approaches to the coronavirus pandemic.
It was among the many final states to impose a coronavirus lockdown at the beginning of the pandemic — then shortly started reopening in the primary week of May 2020, when it lifted its stay-at-home order.
Texas additionally had one of many swiftest reopenings, with the state first lifting restrictions on May 1, 2020 — whereas Missouri started to raise its lockdown the next month.
New York started lifting its COVID-19 restrictions in mid-June final yr, after Cuomo ended the state’s stay-at-home order.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday mentioned that the seven-day common of new cases in the US was up 53 % over the earlier week — with the Delta variant comprising round 83 % of infections nationwide.
“It is clear that we’re experiencing what many other countries are experiencing — increased case counts driven by the more transmissible Delta variant,” Zients mentioned.
But Zients burdened that vaccines offered enough safety in opposition to the variant.
“The good news is that current scientific evidence shows that our current vaccines are working as they did in clinical trials, even against the Delta variant,” he mentioned.
