Nearly Half of New COVID-19 Cases Reported in Five States

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Almost half of the new coronavirus cases in the U.S. are now being reported in five states.

Florida, Michigan, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania reported 196,400 — or 44% — of the nation’s 453,000 COVID-19 cases during the latest seven-day period, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. More than 30 states are reporting seven-day averages of fewer than 1,000 new cases per day.

The five states account for 22% of the nation’s population. The concentration of new cases has prompted some public health officials and elected leaders to call for additional COVID-19 vaccine doses in these areas, the AP reported, but the Biden administration hasn’t indicated that it will change policies on vaccine distribution.

“More vaccine needs to be where the virus is,” Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, MD, an epidemiologist at the University of California at San Francisco, told the Associated Press.

Michigan tops the list with the highest number of daily cases, according to the Johns Hopkins data. The seven-day average is higher than 6,100, which has been increasing for the past two weeks.

New York is close behind Michigan with about 6,000 new daily cases. Mayor Bill de Blasio has called for a larger vaccine distribution for the state’s large population.

“The more supply we get, the easier it will be,” de Blasio said during a press briefing on Tuesday.

“We still need to keep pushing this to the federal government, to the manufacturers, to the state,” he said. “We still need supply, supply, supply, but things are really getting better.”

In New Jersey, Gov. Phil Murphy said vaccine shipments to the state were up 12% during the past week, though he questioned whether that’s enough.

“We constantly look at, okay, we know we’re going up, but are we going up per capita at the rate we should be, particularly given the amount of cases that we’ve gotten?” he said during a press briefing on Monday.

The U.S. has distributed 219 million vaccine doses, and 108 million people have received at least one shot, according to the latest CDC tally updated on Tuesday. About 63 million people, or 19% of the population, are considered fully vaccinated.

The nation is on track to give half of all U.S. adults at least one COVID-19 vaccine by the end of this weekend, according to CNN. As of Tuesday, about 42% of ages 18 and older have received one dose, according to CDC data.

“We do have to remember that there are 100 million-plus adults that still haven’t been vaccinated,” Andy Slavitt, a White House senior adviser for the COVID-19 response, told CNN on Tuesday. “They’re not there yet, and you don’t win the war until you bring everybody over with you.”

Sources

Associated Press, “Nearly half of new US virus infections are in just 5 states.”

Johns Hopkins University, “Coronavirus Resource Center: Testing Trends Tool.”

City of New York, “Transcript: Mayor de Blasio Holds Media Availability, April 6, 2021.”

State of New Jersey, “TRANSCRIPT: April 5th, 2021 Coronavirus Briefing Media.”

CDC, “COVID-19 Vaccinations in the United States.”

CNN, “Five states account for 43% of the country’s new Covid-19 cases in the past week.”

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