The United States will not lock down again to curb COVID-19 but "things are going to get worse" as the Delta variant fuels a surge in cases, top US infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci said.
Key points: The spread of the Delta variant in the US could still threaten the economy, even without a lockdown
The spread of the Delta variant in the US could still threaten the economy, even without a lockdown Vaccines are freely available to anyone 12 years or older in the US
Vaccines are freely available to anyone 12 years or older in the US Financial incentives have failed to motivate more than a third of Americans to get vaccinated
A sufficient percentage of Americans have now been vaccinated to avoid lockdowns, Dr Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said on the American Broadcasting Company's This Week program.
"Not enough to crush the outbreak, but I believe enough to not allow us to get into the situation we were in last winter," he said.
The average daily number of new cases in the US has nearly doubled to more than 77,000 in the past 10 days, according to figures compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
"We have 100 million people in this country who are eligible to be vaccinated who are not getting vaccinated," Dr Fauci said.
About 50 per cent of Americans have received at least one dose of vaccine, ranging from a high of 76 per cent in the state of Vermont to a low of 40 per cent in the state of Mississippi.
After declining for weeks, the number of Americans getting vaccinated has started to rise again.
"The silver lining of this is that people are waking up to this and this may be a tipping point for those who have been hesitant," US National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins told CNN.
"That's what desperately needs to happen if we're going to get this Delta variant put back in its place because right now it's having a pretty big party in the middle of the country."
The state of Florida has one of the worst outbreaks in the nation, based on new cases per capita and has seen infections rise 50 per cent week-over-week.
Despite this, Governor Ron DeSantis has blocked mask mandates in the state's schools, saying parents should decide.
Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. Watch Duration: 51 seconds 51 s US President Joe Biden outlines incentives to get more Americans vaccinated.
Even if states do not resort to lockdowns again, the spread of the Delta variant could still threaten the economy.
The city of Minneapolis' Federal Reserve Bank President Neel Kashkari said the Delta variant was "creating a bunch of caution" among millions of out-of-work Americans during television network CBS' Face the Nation program.
He said the added caution could slow the US labour market recovery.
The surge in Delta variant cases is also rattling the globe.
Parts of Asia that were previously relatively successful in containing COVID-19, such as the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam, are now locking down hot spots.
While vaccines remain scarce in much of the world, they are freely available to anyone 12 years or older in the US, where cash prizes, new cars and other incentives have failed to motivate more than a third of the population to get inoculated.
Florida sets record for COVID hospitalisations
Florida has broken its previous record for current hospitalisations, set more than a year ago.
It comes a day after it recorded the most new daily cases since the start of the pandemic.
Florida has averaged 1,525 adult hospitalisations a day and 35 daily paediatric hospitalisations this week. ( AP: Joe Burbank
The US state had 10,207 people hospitalised with confirmed COVID-19 cases, according to data reported to the US Department of Health & Human Services.
The previous record was from July 23, 2020, more than a half-year before vaccinations started becoming widespread.
Florida then had 10,170 hospitalizations, according to the Florida Hospital Association.
Florida is now leading the US in per capita hospitalisations for COVID-19, as hospitals around the state report having to put emergency room visitors in beds in hallways and others document a noticeable drop in the age of patients.
In the past week, Florida has averaged 1,525 adult hospitalisations a day and 35 daily paediatric hospitalisations.
Both are the highest per capita rate in the US, according to Jason Salemi, an associate professor of epidemiology at the University of South Florida.
Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. Watch Duration: 3 minutes 59 seconds 3 m 59 s What are the Delta and Delta Plus COVID-19 variants?
jas75249 on August 2nd, 2021 at 00:55 UTC »
We couldn’t even if we wanted to, that ship has sailed.
SDdude81 on August 2nd, 2021 at 00:28 UTC »
So where are the prizes being offered for being getting vaccinated?
I'm in Texas and the only promo I've heard of is getting a plain dougnut from Krispy Kreme.
egnards on August 1st, 2021 at 23:43 UTC »
First thought, remember Kenan and Kel, when Kenan would go off on some crazy tangent about all the odd items he needed before running off stage and Kel would go, "AWWW HERE WE GO AGAIN!"
That's that.