U.S COVID cases have topped 40 million according to The New York Times COVID tracker. The milestone comes as no state in the country has yet managed to fully vaccinate 70 percent of its population.
The overall percentage of Americans fully vaccinated is 53 percent, the same as the city of Hong Kong which yesterday revealed it would be relaxing its stringent travel restrictions.
The U.S is currently averaging around 150,000 new COVID cases per day, with a daily average of around 100,000 hospitalizations. Deaths from COVID have increased by 34 percent over the past two weeks, averaging at around 1,500 deaths per day as of Tuesday.
By comparison, 65 percent of the U.K. population has been vaccinated against COVID, with 72 percent of the population having received at least one dose.
Daily cases in England—a country in the U.K.—are averaging at 27,701 cases per day. As a per capita measurement, that is 49 cases per 100,000 people. All of the other countries that make up the U.K are reporting higher cases per capita, with Scotland the highest at 117 cases per 100,000 people.
In contrast, the U.S is currently averaging 46 cases per 100,000 people. The state with the highest rate of cases per capita is Tennessee, with 110 cases per 100,000 people. The southern state currently only has 42 percent of its population fully vaccinated.
The U.S state with the lowest number of COVID cases per capita is Connecticut, which is averaging 525 cases per day, with 15 cases per 100,000 people. Connecticut stands at 67 percent fully vaccinated, while both Massachusetts and Maine have 66 percent of the population fully vaccinated.
The closest state to 70 percent fully vaccinated is Vermont, with 68 percent of the population receiving two doses of a COVID vaccine.
Like the U.S, Hong Kong has a vaccination rate of 53 percent. On Tuesday, Chief Executive Carrie Lam announced in a press conference that as of Wednesday it would relax travel restrictions on travelers from mainland China, meaning they no longer have to quarantine when they return to the city.
Returning travelers will still be required to provide a negative COVID test and will be capped at 2,000 people per day.
Hong Kong will also allow city residents to return from India, Malaysia, Pakistan, Thailand, and South Korea if they are fully vaccinated. The returning Hong Kong residents from these countries will still be asked to quarantine for two to three weeks.
The move marks the relaxation of what has been described as some of the world's strictest travel restriction rules.
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.
