US Covid-19 cases rise as Delta variant spreads

Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Friday that she did not expect the American people to welcome the agency’s new mask guidance.

She urged people to get vaccinated and mask up for now to avoid the need for continued masking. 

The CDC recommended Tuesday that fully vaccinated people wear masks indoors in areas with “substantial” or “high” transmission of Covid-19 – more than half of all US counties. The agency cited the rapid spread of the Covid-19 Delta variant, which in some cases has been transmitted by fully vaccinated people.

“I have no interest in continuing mask guidance, and the best way to stop a new variant from spreading is to have less virus out there, and the best way to do that is to get people vaccinated and to mask up until they are,” she said.

President Biden said the US will “in all probability” see more guidelines and restrictions following rising Covid-19 cases and the emerging spread of the Delta variant.

When asked if the US was headed for more lockdowns due to rising cases, White House deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre dismissed the concern, telling reporters at the briefing, “the way we see this is that we have the tools in our tool belt to fight this … variant,” adding, “we are not going to head towards a lockdown.”

“Our goal is to make sure that we are we are not headed towards that, that is not going to be the direction that we take, because we have the tools to prevent that,” Jean-Pierre said, pointing to the availability of free vaccines across the country.

Joann Marcus of Fort Lauderdale, left, cheers as she listens to the Broward School Board's emergency meeting, Wednesday, July 28, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. A small but vocal group spoke vehemently against masks, saying their personal rights were being eroded and their children were suffering socially. 

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has issued an executive order that directs the state’s health and education departments to issue emergency rules that prevent the implementation of a mask mandate in schools. 

A news release from the governor’s office said that executive order 21-175 was issued “in response to several Florida school boards considering or implementing mask mandates in their schools after the Biden administration issued unscientific and inconsistent recommendations that school-aged children wear masks.”

It added that this was done “to protect parents’ freedom to choose whether their children wear masks.” 

The executive order states that if the State Board of Education finds a school district board unwilling or unable to comply, they are able to withhold the transfer of state funds,  discretionary grant funds, or discretionary lottery funds until they do. They may also declare the school ineligible for competitive grants.

The latest data: DeSantis’ order comes after the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention unveiled guidance earlier this week that people in areas with “high” or “substantial” Covid-19 transmission should resume wearing masks indoors. Over 75% of the US population live in these areas.

The CDC released a new study Friday that shows the Delta Covid-19 variant produced similar amounts of virus in vaccinated and unvaccinated people if they get infected.

The finding that the Delta variant resulted in similar viral loads “was a pivotal discovery leading to CDC’s updated mask recommendation,” Walensky said Friday.

“The masking recommendation was updated to ensure the vaccinated public would not unknowingly transmit virus to others, including their unvaccinated or immunocompromised loved ones,” the CDC director said.

New evidence about the contagiousness of the Delta variant shows it’s more important than ever to get vaccinated, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Dr. Anthony Fauci said Friday.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published a study earlier Friday showing that three-quarters of people infected during an outbreak in Provincetown, Massachusetts, were vaccinated. Most cases involved the Delta variant. And infected people who were vaccinated had just as much virus in their bodies as unvaccinated patients did.

The Provincetown study prompted the CDC to change its guidance on mask use and advise vaccinated people to resume mask use indoors in areas of sustained or high transmission of the virus.

“There’s a difference between knowing that is transmissible in general versus it’s also transmissible when you have a breakthrough infection of a vaccinated person,” Fauci said.

“I think the simplest way to get people to understand is that we are dealing with a different virus,” he added. “The Delta virus has characteristics that’s different than the Alpha variant and other variants we’ve dealt with. So when someone says the war is changed, what it really means [is that] the virus has changed. And we have got to keep up in our understanding, and what our policies are related to the fact that we’re dealing now with a more formidable virus.”

Some background: The Alpha, or B.1.1.7 variant, dominated the US until early summer. Now Delta, also known as B.1.617.2, accounts for more than 80% of cases, according to the CDC. It’s driven a fresh surge of infections.

“The solution to all of this is to get as many people vaccinated as we possibly can,” Fauci said. “There’s a really, really good reason to get vaccinated, and that is to save yourself from getting a severe infection that would lead to hospitalization and deaths.”

“There’s one striking number that people who choose to remain unvaccinated should remember: in the United States… look at all of the Covid deaths, 99.5% of them occur among unvaccinated people, and 0.5% occur among vaccinated people. So if ever there was a statistic that’s striking, to tell you the difference between a vaccinated and unvaccinated person, that’s it,” Fauci added.

Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge is warning consumers to be aware of potential price gouging on goods, products, and services following Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s Covid-19 public health emergency declaration. 

Rutledge released tips in a news release to avoid price gouging, including knowing the average price for goods like hand sanitizer, soap and non-perishable food items before purchasing. 

The state’s price gouging law bans businesses from excessive and unjustified increases in the prices charged for essential goods and services during emergencies. Arkansas businesses may legally charge a higher price if they can show that the higher price is directly attributable to additional costs incurred by the retailer, its supplier or as the result of additional costs for labor or materials.

Fireworks go off at the Magic Kingdom Park in Walt Disney World Resort on July 1, in Lake Buena Vista, Florida.

The Walt Disney Company is requiring full Covid-19 vaccinations for all salaried and non-union hourly employees working at sites in US, the company said in a statement Friday.

The company will give employees who aren’t vaccinated and working on-site 60 days to get vaccinated, according to the statement. Employees working from home will need to provide verification of vaccination before returning to work, the company said, with limited exceptions. 

All new hires will be required to be fully vaccinated before beginning employment, the company said.

Discussions with unions representing employees under collective bargaining agreements have also begun, the company said.

More than 84,400 vaccination doses were administered over the last 24 hours in New York state, according to a news release from Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office. 

This is higher than the daily average during the month of July, which was just over 31,900.   

The seven-day positivity average for Covid-19 cases remains over 2% in the state. The highest rate is in the capital region at 3.21%, according to the release.

The rise in vaccinations comes after Cuomo and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced certain vaccine requirements for state and city workers this week.

To note: The July vaccination average of 31,907 was computed by adding up all of the daily vaccine doses reported by the New York State Department of Health via the governor’s press office and dividing by total number of days.

The US Food and Drug Administration is pulling in extra help from across the agency to speed final approval of Pfizer/BioNtech’s coronavirus vaccine, an agency spokesperson told CNN Friday.

“We have taken an all-hands-on-deck approach, including identifying additional resources such as personnel and technological resources from across the agency and opportunities to reprioritize other activities, in order to complete our review to help combat this pandemic surge,” the FDA’s Abby Capobianco told CNN in an email.

The three vaccines in current use in the United States — Pfizer’s, Moderna’s and Johnson & Johnson’s — have emergency use authorization. Pfizer has filed for full approval in a process known as biologics license application or BLA. 

“We recognize that for some, the FDA approval of COVID-19 vaccines may bring additional confidence and encourage them to get vaccinated,” Capobianco said. She said acting FDA Commissioner Dr. Janet Woodcock was helping reassign people and other resources.

“FDA staff will conduct a thorough review process, while balancing the incredible sense of urgency necessary, both of which are needed to ensure that any vaccine that is authorized or approved meets our rigorous standards for safety, effectiveness, and quality. In this regard, Dr. Woodcock has reiterated her appreciation for the diligence and integrity to this process and offered all agency resources to the team to make this happen.”

The White House is not considering a national vaccine requirement at this time, principal deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters at Friday’s press briefing.

Jean-Pierre declined to say whether President Biden has asked the Department of Justice if a federal vaccine mandate was possible, telling reporters Friday, “I don’t have any more to add to that,” but pointed to the President’s remarks Thursday during remarks from the East Room.

More than 80% of the US population — about 274 million people — live in a county considered to have “high” or “substantial” Covid-19 transmission, according to a CNN analysis of data published Friday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

This includes more than half of the US population — nearly 55% — who live in areas with “high” transmission, and another 28% live in counties with “substantial” transmission. 

That’s about 25 million additional people since Thursday who live in a county where, according to the latest CDC guidance, even fully vaccinated people should mask up indoors.

Less than 1% of the population — fewer than 2 million people — live in areas with “low” transmission.  

The CDC considers a county to have “high” transmission if there have been 100 or more cases of Covid-19 per 100,000 residents in the past week, or a test positivity rate of 10% or higher during the same time frame. For “low” transmission, those numbers must be fewer than 10 new cases per 100,000 or a test positivity rate under 5%.

White House principal deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre

White House principal deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre defended the administration’s communication efforts after it updated Covid-19 guidance following rising cases and the dominance of the Delta variant, telling reporters at Friday’s briefing that while they haven’t held a Covid-19 briefing this week or had any health officials join the White House briefings, “I would argue that we had the President of the United States speak to this yesterday, he gave a more than 30 minute speech about where we are as a country.”

“The doctors have been on national television all week, speaking to this, answering the questions on your networks, so they’ve been out there talking about, they’re not hiding,” she added.

Jean-Pierre also told reporters, “our message has always been clear throughout — we need more people to get vaccinated to stop the spread of this variant, and so, we have to continue to make that effort.”

Jean-Pierre also pointed to data released by the CDC today in their weekly Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) that led to new mask guidance, telling reporters Friday, “The CDC’s first and foremost priority is getting the American people information as quickly as possible, and so, that’s what they did on Tuesday, they got it as quickly as they can.”

“They’re going to be releasing this data today, as you know, and it was clear that the vaccine — it was clear that vaccinated people have the ability to transmit, and action needed to be taken quickly, and that’s why they did it.”

The US Food and Drug Administration has expanded the use of Regeneron’s antibody therapy so it could be used as a preventative treatment for certain people who have been exposed to Covid-19, the company said on Friday.

The FDA’s expanded authorization will allow the antibody treatment to be used in people who are not fully vaccinated or are not expected to mount an adequate immune response after they have been exposed to someone who is infectious or for those who are at high risk of exposure to someone with Covid-19 in an institutional setting.

It is not authorized as a substitute for vaccination, the FDA said.

Regeneron’s late-stage trial data showed an 81% reduced risk of symptomatic infections in people who came into close contact with someone with Covid-19. 

Regeneron’s antibody therapy is the only one that is currently authorized to be used both to treat and prevent Covid-19 infections. It was the treatment given to former President Trump when he became infected last year, as well as several other high-profile politicians.

The initial authorization allowed doctors to use the treatment for any patient who is 12 years old or older who tests positive for Covid-19 and is at high risk for severe disease, but is not yet hospitalized.

In May, the US stopped the distribution of Eli Lilly’s monoclonal antibody treatment since it didn’t seem to be as effective against virus variants.

At least one Trauma Service Area (TSA) in Texas had zero intensive care unit beds available on Wednesday, according to the most recent data available on the Texas Department of State Health Services Covid-19 Tests and Hospitals dashboard.

Area N, located around Bryan, Texas which is north of Houston and east of Austin, showed no available ICU beds and 49 available hospital beds on the dashboard.

The dashboard shows Area T, which includes Laredo, had one ICU bed and five available hospital beds left.

At least seven other TSAs had less than ten ICU beds left, the dashboard reports. Those include areas around Amarillo, Wichita Falls, Abilene, Killeen, Waco, Beaumont, and Victoria, according to the dashboard.

AdventHealth Central Florida Chief Clinical Officer Dr. Neil Finkler

AdventHealth has elevated its Covid-19 status to “black” due to increased hospitalizations in the Central Florida network. This means that all non-emergency inpatient and outpatient surgeries and procedures will be rescheduled. Time-sensitive pediatric procedures will be carried out with the approval of AdventHealth’s chief medical officer. 

Over 90% of the Covid-19 patients currently hospitalized are unvaccinated, AdventHealth Central Florida Chief Clinical Officer Dr. Neil Finkler said at a news conference Friday.

Finkler said that those vaccinated people who end up being hospitalized are there because they have comorbidities that would put them at risk because their immune system is not functioning normally. 

“For the most part, this has really been a tale of two cities,” Finkler said. “It’s the unvaccinated that are in the hospital. It’s by and large the unvaccinated that get ill, it’s the unvaccinated that require intubations, as well as further, life-saving support. Those that are in the hospital that are vaccinated, again, we understand for the most part why they’re there, because their immune systems aren’t normal.”

World Health Organization Health Emergencies Program Director Michael Ryan talks during a daily press briefing on Covid-19, at the WHO heardquarters in Geneva on March 11, 2020.

The World Health Organization is in “very positive” discussions with countries – including China – on the direction of the next phase of its investigation into the origins of the novel coronavirus, Dr. Mike Ryan, director of WHO’s Health Emergencies Program, said on Friday. 

“I think we’re (in) very positive consultations now with a large number of member states, including our colleagues in China, to look at what we need to move forward next,” Ryan said at a WHO news briefing.

Following the Phase 1 report on the mission, “Many, many studies were proposed going forward, and we do know our Chinese colleagues are implementing some, if not all, of those studies at the moment,” he said.

“We’re expecting all countries, all member states of WHO, to cooperate and support this process. And I suspect that we will get that cooperation.”

Ryan specifically warned against a “politicized” investigation.

“We have stuck to the principles of the process of this from the very beginning, we’ve not ceded to pressures on one side or the other. The (director-general) has tried to steer at a path that has been driven by science, by evidence, taking no sides, and trying to reach the objectives that we all want,” Ryan added.

CNN’s chief medical correspondent Sanjay Gupta broke down the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s new study about the Delta Covid-19 variant spread— and what its findings could mean for vaccinated and unvaccinated Americans across the country.

The study, published by CDC Friday, describes 469 Massachusetts residents who were infected in a July outbreak in Barnstable County, which includes the summer vacation destination Provincetown. No deaths were reported among them.

About 74% — or 346 cases —had been fully vaccinated. Of those cases, 79% reported symptoms. Genetically sequenced cases revealed the Delta variant as the main culprit.

“I still want to reiterate just how effective the vaccines can be at doing the things that people I think looked for them to do the most. Prevent severe hospitalization and death. But it is clear that this Delta variant is far more transmissible and as a result of that, probably even vaccinated people are transmitting this at a higher rate than we thought,” Gupta said.

In terms of what comes next, Gupta said this study will likely spark new questions about preventative measures, including masking and when Americans may need a booster shot.

“They’re saying this is really, really contagious. So even if there’s not a lot of viral transmission now, it’s likely to increase, because of the contagiousness of this and also because we’re going into cooler and dryer weather where we know virus tend to transmit more easily anyway,” Gupta said. “So, I think there’s going to be some changes that come about here, with regard to those recommendations, both on boosters and masking, you know, throughout the country.”

On Tuesday, Walensky previewed these findings while unveiling guidance that people in areas with “high” or “substantial” Covid-19 transmission should resume wearing masks indoors. Over 75% of the US population live in these areas.

Here’s a look at some of the key findings of the study:

Read more about the CDC study here.

CNN’s Michael Nedelman contributed reporting to this post.

Registered nurse Sue Dillon explains the vaccination process to a student before administering a dose of the Pfizer vaccine at a three-day vaccination clinic on July 29, in Wilmington, California.

Among millions of adolescents who have received the Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine, new data show that most of those who have reported side effects experienced non-serious conditions – and the heart condition myocarditis was listed among 4.3% of all reports. 

Data published Friday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention finds that among 8.9 million adolescents vaccinated between December and July, reports of adverse events were received for about 1 per 1,000 vaccines. 

Overall, 8,383 or 90.7% of reports were for non-serious events and 9.3% were for serious events, including death. No reports of death were determined to be the result of myocarditis.

Among the rare serious reports only, the most common were: chest pain at 56.4%; increased troponin, which can indicate a problem with the heart, at 41.7%; and myocarditis, or inflammation of the heart muscle, at 40.3%, according to the report.

Some more background: Beginning in June, reported cases of myocarditis emerged among young people after receiving the vaccine, primarily among boys. Later that month, the US Food and Drug Administration added a warning to the fact sheets for the Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccines.

CDC researchers wrote in the new data that, as of July 16, the federal government’s Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, or VAERS, received 9,246 reports among 12- to 17-year-olds after receiving the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, out of about 8.9 million adolescents vaccinated. The VAERS surveillance system relies on people to submit reports and might not be generalizable to the overall vaccinated population. Common conditions reported were dizziness, temporary loss of consciousness and headache.

“Local and systemic reactions after vaccination with Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine were commonly reported by adolescents aged 12–17 years to U.S. vaccine safety monitoring systems, especially after dose 2,” the researchers wrote. “A small proportion of these reactions are consistent with myocarditis.”

A woman wears a mask in Midtown Manhattan in New York on July 29.

A new study shows the Delta coronavirus variant produced similar amounts of virus in vaccinated and unvaccinated people if they get infected – illustrating a key motivation behind the federal guidance that now recommends most fully vaccinated Americans wear masks indoors.

Experts say that vaccination makes it less likely that you’ll catch Covid-19 in the first place – but for those who do, this data suggests they could have a similar tendency to spread it as unvaccinated people.

The study, published by CDC Friday, describes 469 Massachusetts residents who were infected in a July outbreak in Barnstable County, which includes the summer vacation destination Provincetown. No deaths were reported among them. 

About 74% — or 346 cases — had been fully vaccinated. Of those cases, 79% reported symptoms. Genetically sequenced cases revealed the Delta variant as the main culprit.

The researchers found evidence that viral loads were similar among 127 fully vaccinated people and 84 others who were unvaccinated, partially vaccinated or whose vaccination status was unknown. Viral load is a proxy for how likely someone might be to transmit the virus to others.

The finding that the Delta variant resulted in similar viral loads “was a pivotal discovery leading to CDC’s updated mask recommendation,” Walensky said Friday.

On Tuesday, Walensky previewed these findings while unveiling guidance that people in areas with “high” or “substantial” Covid-19 transmission should resume wearing masks indoors. More than 75% of the US population live in these areas.

Although these findings motivated CDC to update its guidance, the study notes that Barnstable County was not one of those areas until the outbreak. Between July 3 and 17, daily new cases rose from a 14-day average of 0 to 177 cases per 100,000 residents.

The study suggests that “even jurisdictions without substantial or high COVID-19 transmission might consider expanding prevention strategies, including masking in indoor public settings regardless of vaccination status.”

CNN previously reported on the outbreak connected to Provincetown. In total, at least 882 cases have been linked to the cluster so far – about 60% of whom were Massachusetts residents, according to local officials.

A source familiar with the CDC’s decision to update its recommendations previously told CNN that, in addition to the viral load findings, the overall prevalence of Delta and lower-than-hoped vaccine uptake played key roles in the latest iteration of the guidance.

The Delta coronavirus variant surging across the United States appears to cause more severe illness and spread as easily as chickenpox, according to an internal document from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The document — a slide presentation — outlines unpublished data that shows fully vaccinated people might spread the Delta variant at the same rate as unvaccinated people.

CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky confirmed the authenticity of the document, which was first reported by The Washington Post.

The CDC is scheduled to publish data today that will back Walensky’s controversial decision to change guidance for fully vaccinated people. 

The Delta variant’s comparison to the chickenpox has prompted questions about how easily it can spread within a group of people.

Here’s a look at how the Delta variant’s spread compares to the early Covid-19 strain, according the CDC:

As the Delta variant continues to spread in the US, 49 states are seeing a surge in cases. Some experts say stricter vaccine mandates may be the best way to prevent a full downward spiral.

Cases and hospitalizations are climbing across much of the US, although numbers are not anywhere near the peaks the country say in January. Deaths have also increased in parts of the country following steady declines.

Here’s a look at how Covid-19 data has progressed since the start of the pandemic in the US: