Daily U.S. COVID-19 deaths nearly double in 2 weeks

Vaccine Breakthrough COVID

Being vaccinated against COVID-19 doesn't guarantee that you won't get infected. But here is why getting vaccinated helps protect you anyway and is so crucial to ending the pandemic.

Although the distribution of the various COVID-19 vaccines has improved the U.S. response to the coronavirus pandemic, the highly contagious delta variant is driving thousands of new cases and hundreds of deaths.

In fact, the rolling seven-day average of daily coronavirus-related deaths has nearly doubled in the past two weeks. The U.S. recorded an average of about 509 deaths a day in the week ending Aug. 8 to about 1,000 a day in the week ending Aug. 22 — an increase of a little less than 97%, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

All three COVID-19 vaccines available in the United States are considered very effective at preventing serious illness leading to hospitalization or death. However, so-called breakthrough infections — where fully vaccinated individuals test positive for COVID-19 — could be rising, according to a New York Times report citing preliminary data from six states.

But these types of infections are still very rare and nearly all patients who die of coronavirus-related causes are unvaccinated, public health officials have said.

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Just over half of the U.S. population is fully vaccinated. Vaccinations in the United States bottomed out in July at an average of about 500,000 shots per day, down from a peak of 3.4 million a day in mid-April. But shots are on the rise again — with a million a day given Thursday, Friday, and Saturday — because of concerns about the delta variant, which is filling hospital beds in several states.

With The Associated Press.

Several medical workers in blue scrubs, masks, caps tend to a patient in a hospital

U.S. Navy medical support team members tend to a COVID-19 patient at Ochsner Lafayette General Medical Center in Lafayette, Louisiana, Aug. 21, 2021. (U.S. Navy Photo)