One in 500 Americans have died of COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic in March 2020.
663,913 US residents have died, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
Over the past week, the U.S. averaged more than 152,300 cases per day, 13 times the daily case average from June 2021.
Additionally, 1,805 new COVID-19 deaths were reported each day for a week as of last Tuesday. Almost all of the deaths have been among the unvaccinated. For example, 97% of COVID deaths in Pennsylvania occurred among unvaccinated people, according to Pennsylvania’s acting secretary of health.
Only 54% of the U.S. population is fully vaccinated, with the rate of new vaccinations declining.
The CDC continues to push for vaccination as well as masking practices, even among fully vaccinated groups.
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) is also encouraging schools to implement mask mandates for the upcoming semester. “Reasonable people may disagree about a lot, but we can all agree that we must keep our children in the classroom so they don’t fall behind and so their parents can go to work and not take time off to watch their kids at home,” he said.
Dr. Anthony Fauci echoed DeWine’s statement, saying that masks and vaccinations will keep children safe in schools this fall. “If you surround the kids with vaccinated people and you have everybody wear a mask, you can get a situation where the children will be relatively safe in school,” he said.
