Friday, new COVID-19 cases in the United States rose by 46,328 to 33,504,462. Fatal cases increased by 1,406 to 602,813. The United States still has 19% of the world’s total cases and 16% of deaths. The spread of COVID-19, however, has slowed considerably since late last year and early this year, when new cases per day averaged well over 200,000 and deaths on some days topped 3,000.
Among the reasons the numbers of cases and deaths have fallen are vaccinations. Fifty-one percent of Americans have received at least one dose. Forty-one percent are fully vaccinated. A total of 369,159,075 doses have been delivered. Out of these, 299,120,522 shots have been given. Social distancing and mask-wearing, enforced much more strictly in some states than others have also made a major contribution to slowing the spread of the disease.
One nagging concern as the United States has opened is variants. Some of these spread faster than the dominant strain in the country last year. So far, none is vaccine-resistant or causes more deaths. The dangerous COVID-19 variant that the WHO now identifies as “Delta” has spread to dozens of nations.
Parts of the United States remain fairly dangerous. One way public health experts and epidemiologists measure cases and fatalities from place to place is per 100,000 residents. This allows smaller places to be compared to larger ones on an apples-to-apples basis.
One of the primary anxieties about COVID-19 is that there are still hotspots in the U.S. These are geographic areas where the spread has flared well above the national average numbers. The county that is the worst hotspot in America is Livingston County, MO which has had the most new cases per 100,000 over the last seven days. That figure is 95. Ranked second in the country, Linn County, MO posted a number of 62, according to The New York Times.
Livington County is in the northwest part of the state, and also northeast of Kansas City. According to the U.S. Census, it has a population of 15,227. Almost 92% of the county is White. Based on a median household income of $46,992, it is much poorer than the national average. And, at 15%, its poverty rate is higher.
No county ranks as the worst hotspot in American for long. Some other county will top the list in a week or two. The devastation for Livingston County, however, will not pass that quickly.
Click here to read These Are The State Recovering Fast From The Pandemic
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