COVID-19 Case Counts Rising in 46 States

Editor’s note: Find the latest COVID-19 news and guidance in Medscape’s Coronavirus Resource Center.

COVID-19 case counts are rising in nearly all states, according to the latest estimates.

Forty-six states reported that new COVID-19 cases rose 10% this week over the previous week, CNN reported, citing the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. In 31 of those states, new cases went up at least 50%.

The states with the highest number of new cases on Monday were California with 4,782, Texas with 3,565, and Louisiana with 2,393, according to Johns Hopkins. Overall, the United States reported 32,765 new cases and 236 COVID-related deaths on Monday.

South Dakota and Iowa are the only states reporting decreases of between 10% and 50%, CNN reported, citing Johns Hopkins. In Delaware and Arkansas, the rates of new cases were about the same as the previous week.

New coronavirus cases in the U.S. have doubled in 3 weeks, The Associated Press reported.

“It is certainly no coincidence that we are looking at exactly the time that we would expect cases to be occurring after the July Fourth weekend,” Bill Powderly, MD, co-director of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Washington University’s School of Medicine in St. Louis, told The Associated Press.

Two States Report Rise in Hospitalized Children

The CDC says at least 57% of cases sequenced in the U.S. are of the Delta variant, and health experts say most of the new cases are in unvaccinated people. Some of those unvaccinated people are children.

Missouri and Mississippi, which have low vaccination rates, are reporting an alarming trend of children being hospitalized for COVID-19.

Mississippi Health Officer Thomas Dobbs, MD, tweeted that seven children with COVID were in state intensive care units, and two were on ventilators.

Though Dobbs did not say if the children are infected with the Delta variant, he said “pretty much all cases in Mississippi are Delta variant right now,” and the “vast majority of cases/hospitalizations/deaths” are of unvaccinated people.

In Missouri, CoxHealth CEO Steve Edwards said the same trend is happening there.

“We are seeing younger and sicker patients coming,” he told USA Today.

Sources

CNN: “Catch up: The latest on the surge of Covid-19 cases in the US.”

Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center: “COVID-19 Data in Motion: Tuesday, July 13, 2021.”

The Associated Press: “US COVID-19 cases rising again, doubling over three weeks.”

Twitter: @TCBPubHealth, July 12, 2021.

USA Today: “US drug overdose deaths hit record high in 2020; Hospitalizations in younger children rising in 2 states: COVID-19 updates.”

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