58K New COVID Cases, 1177 Deaths In US
58856 new coronavirus cases and 1177 deaths from the disease were reported in the United States on Tuesday.
With this, the national total of COVID cases increased to 29607487, according to latest data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
The U.S. COVID death toll rose to 538087.
One fifth of the deaths – 233 – occurred in California, followed by Texas, which reported 173 deaths. It took the state’s total death toll to 47000.
New York had the most number of daily new infections – 6582.
Speaking at a White House press briefing, Director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Rochelle Walensky said nationally, the number of daily cases continues to hover around 50,000 to 55,000, and the most recent seven-day average is 53,000 cases per day. Hospital admissions continue to fall, with the most recent seven-day average just more than 4,700 admissions per day. “We continue to see declines in the number of deaths from COVID-19, averaging slightly more than 1,100 deaths per day over the last seven days,” she told reporters.
CDC announced new funding of $2.25 billion in grants to public health departments to address COVID-19 health disparities and advance health equity among people who are at high risk and underserved. They include racial and ethnic minority groups and people living in rural areas. More than 100 health departments will get an average of $20 million each in grant.
In the same briefing, Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona announced that a National Reopening Summit for schools will be held next week. First Lady Dr. Jill Biden will be offering opening remarks.
Cardona said she notified all 50 states, D.C., and Puerto Rico that they will be receiving nearly $122 billion from the American Rescue Plan to help them reopen schools safely and quickly.
In addition, the Department of Health and Human Services is allocating $10 billion for states to do screening and surveillance testing in schools.
Dr. Nunes Smith, who is the head of the Biden administration’s task force on health equity, said that Eli Lilly’s newest monoclonal antibody combination therapy has shown the ability to reduce COVID-19-related hospitalizations and deaths by up to 87 percent. The National Institutes of Health and the Infectious Disease Society of America formally recommend the use of this treatment in patients with mild or moderate COVID-19 who are at high risk of progression to severe disease.
Dr. Smith announced that the Department of Health and Human Services signed a new $150 million agreement to make sure that any individual or community who meets the clinical criteria can have access to these important therapeutics.
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