In the past week (October 30 through November 5), the U.S. reported about 490,000 new cases, according to the CDC. This amounts to:
- An average of 70,000 new cases each day
- 150 total new cases for every 100,000 Americans
- 1% fewer new cases than last week (October 23-29)
Last week, America also saw:
- 36,000 new COVID-19 patients admitted to hospitals (11 for every 100,000 people)
- 8,000 new COVID-19 deaths (2.4 for every 100,000 people)
- 99% of new cases are Delta-caused (as of October 30)
- An average of 1.8 million vaccinations per day (including booster shots; per Bloomberg)
At the national level, new COVID-19 cases seem to have entered a plateau. The U.S. has reported about 70,000 new cases a day for the past three weeks; while hospitalization and death numbers continue to go down, those drops are rather slight compared to what we saw earlier this fall.
Cold-weather states continue to see the highest case rates: Alaska, Montana, North Dakota, and Wyoming are at the top this week, with over 400 new cases for every 100,000 people as of the latest Community Profile Report.
New Hampshire is now a concerning hotspot as well—the state saw almost a 200% increase in cases from last week to this week. Colorado, Minnesota, New Mexico, and Michigan are also reporting significant increases.
Throughout the pandemic, trends in the U.S. have often followed trends in Europe, with this country seeing new surges a few weeks after they happen across the Atlantic. And right now, Europe is “at the epicentre” of the pandemic, according to the World Health Organization. Russia and Germany have recently recorded record cases, while other European countries are reinstating safety restrictions.
This week, the world marked five million COVID-19 deaths, while the U.S. marked 750,000. Both numbers are almost certainly undercounts, due to under-testing, limited medical record-keeping in some places, and other issues. In the U.S., over 1,000 people continue to die each day despite widely available vaccines.
Vaccination numbers are going up, though—driven largely by booster shots and by shots for the 5 to 11 age group, now officially eligible. The federal vaccines.gov site has been updated to include vaccination sites for these kids.
But as we celebrate kids getting vaccinated, it’s important to recognize the global inequities at play here: