Fourth of July travel projected to near record high

July 3, 2021 - By admin

Read Time:4 Minute, 57 Second

Matthew Rocco, Beagan Wilcox Volz and Peter Wells in ny and Sarah Provan, Leke Oso Alabi, George Steer and Alistair Gray in London

Like the script from a Hollywood blockbuster, this year’s Independence Day holiday had been built up as a possible celebration point for the vaccination rollout within the US.

The Biden administration last month conceded that its goal of getting 70 per cent of adult Americans receive a minimum of one dose by Independence Day would pass the wayside. the extent was at 66.8 per cent on Friday, consistent with data from US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Led by Vermont, Hawaii and Massachusetts, 18 states have already made that grade, while Mississippi, Louisiana and Wyoming are still lagging below 50 per cent, consistent with data from the CDC.

Bar chart of Percentage of adult population that has received a minimum of one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine showing States with the very best and lowest share of adults with first doses
That spread is what poses subsequent challenge for public health officials and government leaders as more transmissible variants of Covid-19 are expected to possess adverse affects on the residents and resources of places with low vaccination rates.

The US has fully vaccinated 47.1 per cent of its population, a share that also ranks among the very best within the world and has helped give officials and policymakers a degree of comfort in rolling back pandemic restrictions. States within the country’s north-east have generally performed best, while several within the south and therefore the Mountain subregion have lagged.

Vermont and Mississippi are both on the verge of reaching numerical milestones that reflect the wide performance of states. the previous could soon become the primary state where two in three residents are fully vaccinated, while Mississippi is on the brink of becoming the ultimate state where 30 per cent of the population has completed the dosage regimen.

Bar chart of Percentage of state population that has completed their Covid-19 vaccine dose regimen showing States with the very best and lowest share of fully vaccinated residents
Further vaccination coverage gains could prove challenging. The US is administering fewer than 600,000 vaccine doses each day , rock bottom daily level in six months, and down from a peak seven-day average of about 3.4m in mid-April.

About 1,000 counties have vaccination coverage of but 30 per cent, Rochelle Walensky, director of the CDC, told a press briefing on Thursday. That made these communities, primarily within the south-east and Midwest of the US, “the most vulnerable” to the more transmissible Delta strain of Covid-19 that’s quickly becoming more prevalent across the country, she said.

The White House announced on Thursday it had been fixing “surge response teams” to assist communities with low vaccination rates that are in danger of, or are already experiencing, outbreaks thanks to the new variant, which was first identified in India.

Nevada, Missouri and Arkansas are currently averaging the very best number of latest cases per capita within the US, although these remain well below peak levels experienced during the winter. Missouri, though, is one among the country’s latest Delta variant hotspots.

When states are ranked by population, performances are mixed. Of the ten most populous states, only Georgia and North Carolina have but 60 per cent of adults fully vaccinated, while only California and ny have quite half their overall populations fully vaccinated.

Bar chart of showing Vaccination coverage within the 10 most populous US states
At the opposite end of the size , rollouts in Vermont and Maine have capitalised on their small populations and lifted the fully vaccinated proportion of residents past a country-leading 60 per cent.

States including Wyoming, Alaska, North Dakota , South Dakota and Montana still have but 50 per cent of residents fully vaccinated, which can be partly explained by their lower population densities.

Bar chart of showing Vaccination coverage within the 10 least populous US states

Brazil’s top prosecutor opens investigation into Bolsonaro over vaccine deal
Michael Pooler and Carolina Pulice in Sao Paulo

Brazil’s top prosecutor has requested an investigation of president Jair Bolsonaro over allegations he did not act on concerns of corruption within the procurement of coronavirus vaccines from India.

The rightwing populist has been accused of dereliction of duty after a whistleblower claimed to possess personally raised with him suspicions of wrongdoing during a R$1.6bn ($320m) deal to accumulate 20m jabs of Covaxin.

With quite half 1,000,000 lives lost to Covid-19 in Latin America’s most populous nation, the controversy is popping into a serious political headache for Brasília as its handling of the pandemic comes under intense scrutiny from a congressional inquiry.

The prosecutor-general’s office on Friday announced the opening of a search into Bolsonaro, which a supreme court justice must now formally authorise. The president’s office didn’t answer an invitation for comment.

Ministers have denied irregularities within the Covaxin agreement, which involved an intermediary company, while insisting that no money has been paid since no batches of the shots have yet been delivered. Federal prosecutors are already looking into the deal.

The case emerged after a health department employee, Luis Ricardo Miranda, claimed he was unduly pressured to log off contracts containing supposed irregularities.

The civil servant’s brother, a federal lawmaker, told the Covid-19 parliamentary panel they shared suspicions with Bolsonaro which he promised to require action. However, police said the matter wasn’t reported.

Following the hearing, three senators in the week lodged a complaint of malfeasance against the president at the supreme court, which led to the request for an investigation.

A separate scandal over vaccine procurement exploded in the week in Brazil after a businessman claimed a government official requested bribes to secure a supply contract.

Fourth of July travel projected to close record high