Pennsylvania and New Jersey now only track Michigan as epicenters of COVID-19 activity as the nation sees a surge of activity amidst a great push to vaccinate all citizens 16 and older by May 31.
If that is achieved, Americans would enjoy a somewhat normal July 4th after the May 31 deadline, officials say.
In Pennsylvania, cases are on the rise. The state treated an average of more than 5,000 cases per day in the past week Philadelphia Inquirer reports. Neighboring New Jersey reported a spike in the number of cases in March, but the number of cases in that state has declined since then. New Jersey scored an average of more than 3,200 in the past week.
Delaware is also adding more cases per capita, tracking Michigan, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey in cases averaging 7 days. The state has an average of 405 new cases per day, an increase of 115% from March.
Yesterday, the United States reported 67,933 new COVID-19 cases and 477 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins COVID-19 tracker. In total, the country has confirmed 31,772,125 cases, including 568,196 deaths.
Warnings against travel to 80% of countries
This week, about 80% of the world’s countries receive the highest travel warning from the US State Department – “Level 4: Do Not Travel” designation – due to the high levels of COVID-19, the US State Department. Washington Post reported.
Currently only 16% of countries have a level 4 designation, but international travel is slowly returning. The State Department suggests that all Americans should avoid unnecessary travel, but United Airlines has announced that it will add new flights to Greece, Iceland and Croatia from July.
Earlier this week, French President Emmanuel Macron told CBS’s “Face the Nation” that his country will begin lifting international travel restrictions in May.
While the Centers for the Disease Control and Prevention has said that fully vaccinated Americans can travel inland, it also warns that international travel increases the risk of spreading new COVID-19 variants.
Assess medications to self-treat COVID
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) will fund a phase 3 study called ACTIV-6 that will test several existing prescription and over-the-counter medications that people can self-administer to treat symptoms of COVID-19, the NIH said in a press release yesterday.
While several treatments for moderate to severe COVID-19 have been approved, there is currently no recommended home treatment for mild cases of the virus.
“While we do a good job of treating hospitalized patients with serious illness, we currently do not have any approved medications that we can self-administer to relieve the symptoms of people suffering from mild illness at home and reduce the risk of their illness. need hospitalization, ”said NIH director Francis Collins, MD, PhD.
“ACTIV-6 will evaluate whether certain drugs that show promise in small trials can stand the rigors of a larger trial.”
20% of seniors remain unvaccinated
Anyone in the United States over the age of 16 is now eligible for a COVID-19 vaccine as of yesterday, but 20% of adults 65 and older are still not vaccinated.
Some health experts are concerned that those older Americans will not struggle with getting a vaccine New York Times reports.
In other virus news, the CDC said in a telephone briefing yesterday that the risk of surface transmission of COVID-19 is low, and that frequent cleaning and disinfection of surfaces will have minimal impact on viral transmission and contribute to “ hygiene theater, ” CNN reports.
The CDC still claims that COVID-19 is mainly spread via droplet transfer, although multiple experts have long argued that the virus is in the air.