The number of COVID-19 cases in the United States is increasing again after months of falling numbers. The number of new cases a day has increased by 100 percent over the past three weeks. Experts say the increase has been caused by the fast-spreading delta variant, low vaccination rates and recent holiday gatherings in the country. Confirmed infections rose to an average of about 23,600 a day on July 12, up from 11,300 on June 23. Those numbers come from reports from Johns Hopkins University. Every state except two Maine and South Dakota reported that case numbers have gone up over the past two weeks. “It is certainly no coincidence that we are looking at exactly the time that we would expect cases to be occurring after the July 4th weekend,” said Dr. Bill Powderly. He is the co-director of the infectious-disease division at Washington University’s School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri. July 4th or Independence Day -- is a major American holiday. At the same time, parts of the country are dealing with strong anti-vaccine beliefs. And the highly contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus, which was first discovered in India, is making an ever-larger share of infections in the United States. Nationally, 55.6 percent of all Americans have received at least one COVID-19 shot, says the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Even with the latest increases, case numbers in the U.S. are still much lower than they were earlier this year. They reached a high of 250,000 cases a day in January. The number of people dying from COVID-19 each day is also much lower than six months ago. The country is now reporting fewer than 260 deaths per day on average. Over the winter, there were more than 3,400 COVID-related deaths being reported each day. The large drop shows how effectively the vaccine can prevent serious illness and death in those who become infected.
