However, vaccination protection remains very inconsistent in both the United States and around the world, and public health experts say Delta poses a serious threat to unvaccinated populations. On Tuesday, President Biden again urged Americans to get their shots, citing concerns about Delta.
“It works. It’s free. And it’s never been easier and it’s never been more important,” he said. “Do it now – for yourself and the people you care about, for your neighborhood, for yours Country. It sounds cheesy, but it’s a patriotic thing. “
Health experts say the Biden government may need to take more aggressive action to promote vaccination, including asking employers and schools to enact vaccine mandates. As of Tuesday, providers were administering an average of about 0.87 million doses per day, a 74 percent decrease from the high of 3.38 million on April 13, according to federal data.
As for the virus itself, the country has averaged less than 15,000 new cases a day for almost a month, the lowest level since testing became widely available, and a fraction of what was reported in January when the nation routinely exceeded 200,000 Cases identified in a day. Over the past few days, however, the national average number of new cases has been trending slightly upwards, largely due to localized outbreaks in places with low vaccination rates, including parts of Missouri, Arkansas, and Nevada.
As the Delta variant spreads around the world, the World Health Organization recently reiterated longstanding guidance that everyone, vaccinated or not, wear masks as a precautionary measure, but the CDC hasn’t changed its recommendation that fully vaccinated people wear masks in most situations can skip. US health officials have suggested that the WHO’s blanket proposal was influenced by its global reach, as many countries had far less access to vaccines than the United States.
