Younger people who have not been vaccinated are helping to increase the number of new cases of Covid-19, health officials say.
Five states – Michigan, New York, Florida, Pennsylvania and New Jersey – account for about 42% of recent cases. In Michigan, adults between the ages of 20 and 39 have the highest daily case rates, according to new data. Case rates for children up to 19 are at a record high, more than four times a month ago. 301 outbreaks were reported at the beginning of last week, up from 248 the previous week, according to state data.
Epidemiologists and public health authorities have shown that school sports are a major source of Covid-19 transmission. Since January, the K-12 sports broadcast in Michigan has been the largest in basketball, with 376 cases and 100 clusters; in hockey, with 256 cases and 52 clusters; and in battles, with 190 cases and 55 clusters. In general, cases and groups took place in more than 15 sports settings, according to state data.
Leading overall growth among young people in Michigan and, more broadly, is a confluence of pandemic fatigue, leading some people to engage in closer contact and the spread of the more transmissible variant in the UK, known as of B.1.1. .7.
“We used to have clusters of the variant. The cases were in quite limited situations. Now, we certainly see cases of this variant appearing in the general community, ”said Emily Toth Martin, an infectious disease epidemiologist at the University of Michigan School of Public Health. “It is worrying that we are seeing large explosive increases in groups where we cannot use the vaccine.”