After a brief lull, the daily coronavirus cases in the United States crossed 50000. With 55621 additional cases reporting on Monday, the U.S. total increased to 29869516, as per latest data from the Johns Hopkins University.
With 650 additional fatalities on the same day, the total death toll from the pandemic rose to 542949.
Nearly half of Monday's deaths occurred in California and Texas, the two worst-affected states, while most cases - 4908 - were reported in New York.
The most recent seven-day average of coronavirus cases is about 53,800 per day, which is a slight increase from the previous seven-day period. And over the past two weeks, cases have continued to fluctuate somewhere between 50,000 and 60,000 daily cases.
The most recent seven-day average for new hospital admissions is just over 4,500 per day. Like COVID-19 cases, hospital admissions have been relatively stable over the last two weeks, hovering around 4,500 to 5,000 admissions per day.
Deaths continue to decline with the most recent seven-day average of deaths slightly under 1,000 per day.
CDC Director Rochelle Walenski said that the trajectory of the pandemic varies across the United States, with some states and regions of the country, such as the Northeast and the Upper Midwest, beginning to again see a significant rise in cases.
"The continued relaxation of prevention measures while cases are still high, and while concerning variants are spreading rapidly throughout the United States, is a serious threat to the progress we have made as a nation," she said at a White House press briefing Monday.
The newly identified coronavirus variant, B1427/B1429, is estimated to account for 52 percent of cases in California, 41 percent in Nevada, and 25 percent in Arizona.
"I am worried that if we don't take the right actions now, we will have another avoidable surge, just as we are seeing in Europe right now and just as we are so aggressively scaling up vaccination," she told reporters.
In an update on the Biden administration's national strategy to defeat COVID-19, White House Senior Advisor for COVID Response Andy Slavitt said that currently, about 2.5 million people are being vaccinated every day in the United States. This weekend was the first time that the U.S. reported vaccinating more than 3 million people on consecutive days.
A total of 81 million people — or nearly 1 in 3 adults — have received at least one vaccine dose in the U.S., and 44 million people are fully vaccinated. Nearly 69 percent of the country's senior citizens have now received their first vaccination, and 42 percent are fully vaccinated.
Washington opened its first, and country's 22nd federal community vaccination site on Monday. Combined, they deliver nearly 100,000 shots per day.
Germany will extend the country's lockdown to April 18 due to a surge in Covid-19 cases.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel announced on Tuesday a five-day lockdown beginning April 1.
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