According to The Associated Press, the United States finally met President Joe Biden’s goal of getting at least one COVID-19 shot into 70 percent of American adults on Monday, a month late and amid a fierce outbreak of the delta variant that has flooded hospitals and prompted new mask rules and mandatory vaccinations across the country.
Louisiana forced practically everyone, vaccinated or not, to wear masks in all indoor public locations, including schools and colleges, in a huge retreat in the Deep South. Other towns and governments have taken similar steps to reintroduce measures in the face of a crisis blamed on the fast-spreading strain and strong opposition to vaccination.
“They’re pouring in as soon as we can discharge them, and they’re coming in sick. Dr. Sergio Segarra, chief medical officer of Baptist Hospital Miami, bemoaned, “We started seeing entire families come down.” The number of persons hospitalized with the virus has increased by almost 140 percent in the last two weeks, according to a Florida medical centre network.
By the Fourth of July, Biden had set a goal of 70% vaccination. That was the low end of original government projections for what would be required in the United States to attain herd immunity. However, the extremely contagious delta version, which has allowed the virus to resurface, has rendered this insufficient.
On Monday, there was no celebration or setting of a new goal at the White House, as the government works to overcome scepticism and outright resistance to the vaccine, particularly in the South and other rural and conservative areas.
The administration’s other target of fully vaccinating 165 million American adults by July 4 has yet to be met. It is around 8.5 million dollars short.
In the United States, new cases per day have grown sixfold in the last month to an average of roughly 80,000, the highest number since mid-February. Over the last two weeks, the average number of deaths each day has risen from 259 to 360.
