Average daily COVID infections topped last summer’s peak, CDC says

Nationwide COVID-19 infections have surpassed last summer’s peak, White House officials said Monday, but vaccination rates are increasing in states with some of the highest COVID-19 infection rates.

Over the weekend, the seven-day moving average of daily new COVID-19 cases was about 72,000 per day, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Rochelle Walensky said, higher than the peak from last summer before any authorized vaccines were available.

At that time, the nation was reporting about 68,700 new cases per day, according to the CDC. Cases reached record highs in the fall and winter months that followed.

Vaccinations up too: “In the states with the highest case rates, daily vaccination rates have more than doubled,” White House coronavirus response coordinator Jeff Zients said in a press briefing.

Louisiana has seen a 302 percent increase in the average number of newly vaccinated per day, Mississippi has increased 250 percent, Alabama 215 percent and Arkansas increased 206 percent.

But one out of three new COVID-19 cases occurred in Florida and Texas over the past week. About 17 percent of cases came from seven states with low vaccination rates.