The One State Where COVID Cases Are Going Down

Every state except for one recorded an increase in average daily COVID-19 cases over the last 14 days amid a warning that the turning point for infections across the country is not due until the end of January.

The more transmissible Omicron variant of the disease is spreading across the U.S. with many states reporting their highest levels of cases and hospitalizations numbers since the start of the pandemic.

The average of daily cases across the country stands at 344,543 as of Friday, according to The New York Times tracker, an increase of 181 percent over the last 14 days.

It comes as the U.S.'s top infectious diseases expert Dr. Anthony Fauci told CNBC the country's size and disparities in vaccination rates mean that it "likely will be more than a couple of weeks," until cases peak which will occur "probably by the end of January."

COVID vaccination in Maine
A COVID-19 jab is administered at Biddeford High School in Bidderford, Maine on April 26, 2021. It was the only state that saw a decrease in COVID infections over the last 14 days according to... JOSEPH PREZIOSO/Getty Images

The Times tracker taking into account data from state and local health agencies, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) showed that Florida had the highest spike over the last two weeks, with an increase in cases of 1,047 percent.

This is well ahead of the next highest states Louisiana (813 percent) Hawaii (712 percent) and Georgia (646 percent). Next were Maryland (563 percent), Alabama (504 percent) and Mississippi (455 percent).

There were 23 states which had increases in infections of 100 percent or higher over the last 14 days.

New infections remained relatively static in New Hampshire and New Mexico, which both recorded a 1 percent increase over the last 14 days.

Meanwhile, Maine was the only state which had a decrease in infections in the last 14 days, with its daily average cases numbering 728, or 31 percent less than in mid-December.

Its daily average of people hospitalized was 353, which was 14 percent less than two weeks ago. More than three-quarters of people (76 percent) in Maine are fully vaccinated, which is above the national rate of 62 percent.

However, on December 8, Maine deployed the National Guard over fears of a dangerously low capacity at statewide medical facilities as a record-high 379 people were hospitalized, 60 of whom were on ventilators.

Maine Governor Janet Mills had said there were only 42 available intensive care unit (ICU) beds available in the state.

As of Wednesday, the number of COVID-19 patients in Maine hospitals dropped to 329 from 331, down from a peak of 387 on December 21 but still enough to strain medical resources. As of Thursday, 57 patients were on ventilators, the Sun Journal reported.

Newsweek has contacted Governor Mills' office for comment.

CDC figures show that only around a third (33.4 percent) of Americans who are fully vaccinated have had their booster, which experts say is key to help further protect against severe illness from the disease's variants.

Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota told CNN that over the next six weeks "we're going to continue to see transmission of this virus throughout this country, much like a viral blizzard."

"We are going to see a perfect storm in our health care settings," Osterholm added.

Uncommon Knowledge

Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.

Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.

About the writer


Brendan Cole is a Newsweek Senior News Reporter based in London, UK. His focus is Russia and Ukraine, in particular ... Read more

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