Emergency Medical Technician Lenny Fernandez, Assistant Physician Rodnay Moore and Certified Assistant Physician Calvin Davis, from left to right, prepare doses of the Pfizer COVID vaccine while Vernon City Health Department staff used the unit’s new clinic city health mobile to administer COVID-19 vaccinations to approximately 250 essential food processing workers at Rose & Shore, Inc. March 17, 2021 in Vernon, CA.
Al Seib | Los Angeles Times | Getty Images
Covid-19 cases are on the rise and hospitalizations have stagnated in the United States, even as the country has set a new record for doses of coronavirus vaccine administered in one day on Saturday.
The United States saw a seven-day average of 61,359 new Covid-19 cases per day on Friday, a 12% increase from last week, according to a CNBC analysis of Johns Hopkins University data.
Daily hospitalizations for coronavirus hospitals have dropped steadily from January to February, but now hospitalizations are stabilizing. The country saw a seven-day average of 4,790 Covid-19 hospital admissions on Thursday, 2.6% compared to a week earlier, according to data from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
“I remain deeply concerned about this trajectory,” said CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky during a press conference at the White House on Friday. “We have seen cases and hospital admissions move from historic declines to stagnations and increases. We know from previous outbreaks that if we do not control things now, there is real potential for the epidemic curve to rise again.”
Europe is battling a third wave of Covid infections, as countries like France, Poland and Ukraine reintroduce blockages to stem viral spread.
Increasing cases and stagnant hospitalizations occur as more and more Americans are vaccinated. More than 3.4 million doses of the Covid-19 vaccine were administered on Saturday, according to records recorded by the CDC. Saturday’s total broke the previous record for most Covid-19 vaccines given on an established day on Friday, with 3.37 million doses reported.
The pace of vaccination is increasing rapidly, with an average of seven days on Saturday of more than 2.6 million injections administered daily. More than 140 million doses of the Covid vaccine have been administered in the United States as of Saturday, according to the CDC.
President Joe Biden set a new goal on Thursday to deliver 200 million coronavirus vaccines in his first 100 days in office.
The drive for increased vaccinations comes as highly infectious and potentially more deadly variants of the virus continue to spread in the United States. Covid infections in the USA
New strains are of particular concern to public health officials, as they may become more resistant to treatment with antibodies and vaccines. Still, the World Health Organization said in February that Covid-19 vaccines proved to be effective in preventing serious illness and death in infected people.
Covid-related deaths in the U.S. have been declining. The US had a seven-day average of 992 new coronavirus-related daily deaths on Friday, a 14% decline compared to a week ago, according to a CNBC analysis of data from Johns Hopkins.