The pace at which COVID-19 is spreading across America has slowed. Fatalities with the disease in the USA can reach 519,014 (currently, they must always be updated before publication – today it is 531,398) – about 20% of the world total – so far, but the new deaths per day reported here have decreased below 2,000, about half of what they were seven weeks ago.
Effective vaccines were probably a major factor in the decline. However, the pace of vaccination across the country is slow, especially compared to the best performing nations: Israel, the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom. Currently, about 18% of America’s adult population has received at least one dose of the vaccine. Less than 10% received two shots. (Of the 116,378,615 doses of vaccine that have been distributed so far, 92,089,852 were administered.)
The variants are the wildcard. The most widely followed were first detected in the UK, Brazil and South Africa. Recently, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said that one of them now accounts for 20% (updated) of new cases in the United States, and the numbers are increasing.