Health workers perform PCR on a traveler in the United States. Photo: Getty Images.
The average daily cases of Covid-19 in the United States are up, an increase of nearly 884% from mid-June to today, according to federal data.
Several states, including Florida, Hawaii, Louisiana and Mississippi, are seeing the worst increase since the pandemic began in March 2020.
Meanwhile, the average number of cases in New York City is now five times higher than it was a month ago. And more people are dying every day, health authorities have highlighted.
The country’s average daily death rate has now risen to nearly 500, an increase of 183% in the last month from the previous month.
Seven weeks ago, daily deaths were at their lowest level since late March 2020.
The American College of Physicians indicated that masks should be required in all schools “as part of an overall effort to limit the spread of Covid-19”.
The statement follows similar recommendations from the American Pediatric Association and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and comes as some school districts have challenged bans on mask mandates in states such as Texas and Florida.
“Masks are a key public health tool in keeping everyone safe in our school communities,” Dr. George Abraham, president of the ACP, said in a statement.
“Especially with such a large segment of our school students still unable to get their Covid-19 vaccines, masks remain a necessity in our fight to control the pandemic,” he said.
The ACP is the largest medical specialty association in the United States with more than 161,000 members in internal medicine.
Oregon Governor Kate Brown said she is deploying up to 1,500 National Guard personnel to assist hospitals across the state, which are “overburdened with patients during the shifting delta wave.”
“I cannot stress enough the severity of this crisis for all Oregonians, especially those who may need emergency or intensive care,” Brown said.
“When our hospitals are filled with Covid-19 patients, there may not be room for someone who needs care after a car accident, heart attack or other emergency,” he warned.
A US advisory committee to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) voted Friday to recommend that patients with weakened immune systems receive an extra dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccine.
The unanimous vote came less than 24 hours after the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) modified the emergency use authorization for vaccines to include patients with moderate to severe immunosuppression.
(With information from ANSA).
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