US Covid-19 cases rise as Delta variant spreads

By Meg Wagner, Melissa Macaya, Melissa Mahtani, Veronica Rocha and Fernando Alfonso III, CNN

Updated 8:03 p.m. ET, July 30, 2021
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11:10 a.m. ET, July 30, 2021

Daily Covid-19 cases similar to this time last year, but rising rapidly instead of falling, JHU data shows

From CNN's Deidre McPhillips

Registered nurse Darryl Hana prepares a dose of the Pfizer vaccine at a three-day vaccination clinic at Providence Wilmington Wellness and Activity Center on July 29, in Wilmington, California.
Registered nurse Darryl Hana prepares a dose of the Pfizer vaccine at a three-day vaccination clinic at Providence Wilmington Wellness and Activity Center on July 29, in Wilmington, California. Mario Tama/Getty Images

Nationwide, there are about the same number of new Covid-19 cases reported each day as there were at this time last year, but they’re rising quickly right now instead of falling as they were last year, according to a CNN analysis of data from Johns Hopkins University.

The United States recorded an average of about 67,000 new Covid-19 cases each day over the past week, compared to an average of more than 65,000 cases each day in the last week of July 2020.

But at this time last year, cases were on the decline, dropping below 50,000 cases per day about halfway into August 2020. Most recently, average daily cases have been rising for more than three weeks straight. 

While cases are trending up, average daily Covid-19 deaths in the US are a fraction of what they were a year ago. About 305 people died of Covid-19 each day over the most recent seven days, but more than 1,000 people were dying of Covid-19 each day at this time last year, according to JHU data.

 You can track Covid-19 cases in the US here.

10:39 a.m. ET, July 30, 2021

New York City's Broadway theaters will require vaccinations for audience and staff

From CNN's Kwegyirba Croffie

A person without a mask shows their Covid-19 vaccination card before entering "Springsteen on Broadway" at the St. James Theatre in Times Square on July 10, in New York City.
A person without a mask shows their Covid-19 vaccination card before entering "Springsteen on Broadway" at the St. James Theatre in Times Square on July 10, in New York City. Alexi Rosenfeld/Getty Images

Owners and operators of all 41 Broadway theaters in New York City will require audience members and performers as well as staff to be vaccinated for all performances through the month of October, the Broadway League announced Friday.

Masks will also be required for audiences inside theaters, except for when they are eating or drinking in designated locations, the release said. 

Under the joint policy, guests will need to be fully vaccinated with an US Food and Drug Administration or World Health Organization authorized vaccine in order to attend and must show proof upon entry, the release stated.

Exceptions, they said, are being made for children under the age of 12, as well as those with a medical condition or religious belief preventing vaccination.  

10:43 a.m. ET, July 30, 2021

Louisiana doctor says his hospital is admitting 1 Covid-19 patient per hour as Delta brings rise in cases

From CNN's Adrienne Vogt

CNN
CNN

A critical care physician in Louisiana has a stark warning for unvaccinated individuals:

“You cannot avoid Delta. It is not possible. So you have a decision — and the decision is get vaccinated or not. And the results are telling us, if you're not vaccinated, you have a really poor outcome. If you look at our ICU patients this morning, 97% are unvaccinated and the average age is 48,” Dr. Christopher Thomas of Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center in Baton Rouge told CNN’s Poppy Harlow. 

He said the number of Covid-19 patients is affecting health care as a whole. 

“We’re becoming victims of the unvaccinated at the current pace. We currently are overwhelming our bed capacity. We're creating burnout for our teams. And honestly, we're beginning to impact the rest of the health care of the community,” he said. 

Thomas said his hospital currently has more than 50 patients in intensive care units, with 18 patients holding in its emergency department. There is also a shortage of nursing, he said.  

“We're admitting one Covid patient alone per hour. So one per hour. That means that the other patients who need care are being impacted. We are looking over the cliff. I don't see an end in sight,” he said. 

Watch:

9:59 a.m. ET, July 30, 2021

A leaked CDC document shows new data on the Delta variant's spread. Here are key things to know.

From CNN's Elizabeth Cohen and Ben Tinker

 Fin Gomez, a journalist with CBS News and White House Correspondents Association board member, replaces signs for mask-wearing guidance around the James Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House on July 27, in Washington, DC.
 Fin Gomez, a journalist with CBS News and White House Correspondents Association board member, replaces signs for mask-wearing guidance around the James Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House on July 27, in Washington, DC. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

An internal report presented to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicates the Delta coronavirus variant is far more transmissible than older lineages, may cause more severe disease, and that when it causes breakthrough infections, may be as easily transmitted as when it infects unvaccinated people.

What the document shows:

  • The slideshow dated Thursday and first obtained by The Washington Post, appears to provide some data backing CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky’s controversial decision on Tuesday to change the agency’s guidance on mask use.
  • It says the Delta variant is about as transmissible as chickenpox, with each infected person, on average, infecting eight or nine others. The original lineage was about as transmissible as the common cold, with each infected person passing the virus to about two other people on average.
  • And if vaccinated people get infected anyway, they have as much virus in their bodies as unvaccinated people. But vaccinated people are safer, the document indicates. It says vaccines reduce the risk of severe disease or death 10-fold and reduce the risk of infection three-fold.
  • The CDC, the document advises, should “acknowledge the war has changed.” It recommends vaccine mandates and universal mask requirements.

How the CDC reacted:

  • Walensky confirmed to CNN that the slideshow was presented to her at a noon briefing on Thursday. “I think people need to understand that we’re not crying wolf here. This is serious,” Walensky told CNN Thursday night. “It’s one of the most transmissible viruses we know about. Measles, chicken pox, this – they’re all up there," she said.
  • Walensky noted that the R0 for the Delta variant – a measure of its transmissibility – is estimated to be 5-9, meaning each infected person can be expected to infect 5-9 other people. “When you think about diseases that have an R0 of 8 or 9 – there aren’t that many.”
  • Asked about the contents of the slide deck, Walensky said, “There weren’t any surprises. It was the synthesis of the data all in one place that was sobering.”

What comes next:

  • The CDC is scheduled to publish additional data Friday that will back Walensky's controversial decision to change guidance for fully vaccinated people. She said Tuesday the CDC was recommending that even fully vaccinated people wear masks indoors in places where transmission of the virus is sustained or high.

CNN's Paul LeBlanc and Maggie Fox contributed reporting to this post. 

9:24 a.m. ET, July 30, 2021

Covid-19 cluster in Massachusetts town shows vaccines are "clearly working," official says

From CNN's Adrienne Vogt

The data behind an internal US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention document that suggests fully vaccinated people might spread the Delta variant at the same rate as unvaccinated people is, according to the Washington Post, based on a Covid-19 cluster that emerged from July 4 weekend festivities in Provincetown, Massachusetts.

Alex Morse, Provincetown’s town manager, told CNN's "New Day" that there are 112 active cases right now in the town, but the overall cluster number is more than 880 since July 1.

Morse said 74% of the overall cases were among fully vaccinated individuals — but he credits vaccines with ultimately saving people’s lives. 

“What's been interesting, and I think the silver lining here, is that the vaccine is clearly working. It is meant to prevent hospitalization and certainly prevent death. There hasn't been a single death related to the cluster here in Provincetown. There hasn't been a spike in hospitalizations,” Morse said. 

According to the internal CDC, which was first reported by The Washington Post, the Delta variant is about as transmissible as chickenpox, with each infected person on average infecting eight or nine others.

Provincetown reinstated its indoor mask mandate after the cluster of Covid-19 cases emerged.

“The Delta variant is incredibly dangerous to unvaccinated individuals. And While we have a mask mandate in the short term, our longer term way out of this is really through vaccination,” Morse said. 

Watch:

8:43 a.m. ET, July 30, 2021

Vaccination by itself is not enough to stop the spread of Covid-19 variants, study finds

From CNN’s Maggie Fox

Vaccination alone won't stop the rise of new variants and in fact could push the evolution of strains that evade their protection, researchers warned Friday. 

They said people need to wear masks and take other steps to prevent spread until almost everyone in a population has been vaccinated.

Their findings, published in Nature Scientific Reports, support an unpopular decision by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to advise even fully vaccinated people to start wearing masks again in areas of sustained or high transmission.

"When most people are vaccinated, the vaccine-resistant strain has an advantage over the original strain," Simon Rella of the Institute of Science and Technology Austria, who worked on the study, told reporters.

"This means the vaccine resistant strain spreads through the population faster at a time when most people are vaccinated."

But if so-called non-pharmaceutical interventions are maintained – such as mask use and social distancing – the virus is less likely to spread and change. "There is a chance to remove the vaccine resistant mutations from the population," Rella said.

The findings suggest that policymakers should resist the temptation to lift restrictions to celebrate or reward vaccination efforts.

This is likely to be especially true with a more transmissible variant such as the Delta variant, said Fyodor Kondrashov, also of the Institute of Science and Technology Austria.

"Generally, the more people are infected, the more the chances for vaccine resistance to emerge. So the more Delta is infectious, the more reason for concern," Kondrashov told reporters. "By having a situation where you vaccinate everybody, a vaccine resistant mutant actually gains a selective advantage."

People should not complain, he said. "The individual who already vaccinated and putting on a mask should not think this is pointless but should think that there is a vaccine resistant strain running around," he said.

8:20 a.m. ET, July 30, 2021

CDC will release data supporting its mask guidance today

From CNN's John Bonifield and Maggie Fox

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it will release a study Friday that supports this week’s decision to change mask guidance.

CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said Tuesday the agency was changing guidelines for fully vaccinated people because of new science.

She said even fully vaccinated people should wear masks indoors in areas where transmission of the virus is substantial or high.

Walensky said new data indicated that people who get breakthrough infections involving the Delta variant of the virus can be as likely to infect someone else as unvaccinated people are. And she promised that data would be released soon.