In the past week (March 20 through 26), the U.S. reported about 399,000 new cases, according to the CDC. This amounts to:
- An average of 57,000 new cases each day
- 122 total new cases for every 100,000 Americans
- 1 in 823 Americans getting diagnosed with COVID-19 in the past week
- 27,000 more new cases than last week (March 13-19)
Last week, America also saw:
- 33,000 new COVID-19 patients admitted to hospitals (10.1 for every 100,000 people)
- 6,600 new COVID-19 deaths (2.0 for every 100,000 people)
- An average of 2.6 million vaccinations per day (per Bloomberg)
After several weeks of declines, our national count of new cases has started creeping up: the current 7-day average is 57,000, after 53,000 last week and 55,000 the week before. Michigan continues to see concerning numbers, as do New York, New Jersey, Florida, Texas, and California—all states with higher counts of reported variant cases.
Last week, I described America’s present situation as a race between vaccines and variants. As of Thursday, we have 8,300 reported B.1.1.7 cases—up from about 5,000 last week, and likely still a significant undercount. The variant-driven surge that some experts warned may come in late March may now be starting.
Still, the pace of vaccinations continues to pick up. We hit more vaccination records this week: 3.4 million doses were reported on Friday, and 3.5 million were reported yesterday. Over 50 million Americans have now been fully vaccinated, according to White House COVID-19 Data Director Cyrus Shahpar.
President Biden set a new goal for his first 100 days in office: 200 million vaccinations, double the 100-million goal that we hit last week. At the nation’s current pace (about 2.6 million doses administered each day), we are well on track to meet that milestone.
43 states have announced that they’ll open up vaccine eligibility to all adults on or before Biden’s May 1 deadline, as of Friday—though opening up wider eligibility can sometimes mean that vaccine access for vulnerable populations becomes even more challenging. A recent data release from the CDC makes it easier for us to analyze vaccinations at a more local level; more on that later in the issue.