Story at a glance:
- Across the country, cases of COVID-19 are declining, with 90 percent of states seeing a major improvement.
- Montana, Colorado, Minnesota, Michigan and Pennsylvania are surging hotspot spots.
- Fauci said around 68 million people who are eligible have yet to get vaccinated.
Cases of COVID-19 are declining across the country, with 90 percent of states seeing numbers either sustained or going down over the past week. However, the remaining 10 percent, or five states, have seen an increase in COVID-19.
Montana, Colorado, Minnesota, Michigan and Pennsylvania are still surging hotspot spots even while the rate of infection is dropping nationally, CNN reported, citing the data from Johns Hopkins University.
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“That’s the good news. And hopefully, it’s going to continue to go in that trajectory downward,” Anthony Fauci, chief medical adviser to President Biden and director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said.
“We have to just be careful that we don’t prematurely declare victory in many respects. We still have around 68 million people who are eligible to be vaccinated that have not yet gotten vaccinated,” Fauci said Sunday.
“If you look at the history of the surges and the diminutions in the cases over a period of time, they can bounce back.”
In some of these states, patients are overwhelming emergency rooms. In Michigan, Rob Davidson of Spectrum Health Gerber Memorial told CNN that during his shift he had “six, seven people sitting in the emergency department, waiting for beds at other hospitals that didn’t exist.”
A few months ago, Colorado had a rate of new coronavirus infections that was lower than the national rate, Rachel Herlihy, the state epidemiologist, told The Denver Post. While new infections are falling across most age groups, cases are spiking among children between the ages of 12 and 17, The Denver Post reported.
The statewide positivity rate, or the number of COVID-19 tests that come back positive, has rise in recent days in Colorado, a 7.22 percent increase to be exact, The Denver Post reports.
According to the Star Tribune, Minnesota reported more than 3,660 new confirmed cases on Friday, adding the total number of COVID-19 cases to more than 735,600. There have also been 20 new deaths since then, adding the total toll to about 8,300.
In Pennsylvania, there were a recorded 3,576 new cases last Saturday, according to the state department of health website. This brings the total of cases in the state to about 1.49 million.
As of now, the state has recorded more than 29,000 deaths, according to a weekly report.
Although Montana has the fewest new cases and deaths, there has been an increase last Friday, a reported 1,315 new cases, according to the state health department. The death toll is 2,079, with only nine people dying since Saturday.
As Changing America previously reported, one of the worst places in the U.S. to have COVID-19 last week was Alaska, as the state struggles with a high caseload and limited health care resources.
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