1 in 5 cases of COVID-19 in the US are now happening in Florida alone, White House official says
- Four states accounted for more than 40% of national COVID-19 cases in the past week.
- Florida alone has seen more than 23,000 new cases this week.
- Fortunately, states with the highest case rates are also seeing more people getting vaccinated.
One in five new coronavirus cases in the US are occurring in Florida alone, a White House official said Friday.
"Four states accounted for more than 40% of all [COVID-19] cases in the past week, with one in five of all cases occurring in Florida alone," White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator Jeff Zients said during a virtual press briefing.
In the past week, Florida has seen more than 23,000 new cases of COVID-19, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
Overall, the country's daily coronavirus cases have climbed 60% in the past two weeks, Insider's Aria Bendix reported. For the most part, the rising rates have been driven by the Delta variant in heavily Republican areas.
"Red" states such as Arkansas, Mississippi, Missouri, and Wyoming have lower vaccination rates and more daily cases and hospitalizations than states that voted Democratic in the 2020 election.
Although the Delta variant is highly transmissible, cases are typically milder in vaccinated people. Unvaccinated folks are more likely to become seriously ill from COVID and end up in the hospital.
"This is becoming a pandemic of the unvaccinated," CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said during the briefing. "Over 97% of people who are entering the hospital right now are unvaccinated."
In Florida, about 47% of the population is fully vaccinated and about 55% of residents have received at least one dose. Those rates vary between counties, and some of the areas with the lowest vaccination rates are also experiencing the state's largest recent outbreaks.
For instance, Baker and Union counties - two relatively small populations - both have new case positivity rates higher than 20% (compared to the state's current overall rate of 11.5%). Baker and Union counties also have some of the lowest vaccination rates among Florida counties - 29% and 28%, respectively, local news outlet News4Jax reported.
But Zients said there is promising news: vaccination rates are rising.
"Importantly, states with the highest case rates are seeing their vaccination rates go up. In fact, in the past week, the 5 states with the highest case rates - Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, Missouri, and Nevada - had a higher rate of people getting newly vaccinated than the national average," he said.
This story is developing. Please check back for updates.