Last Week, 1 In 3 U.S. COVID Cases Were In Florida And Texas

One-third of all COVID cases nationwide occurred in Florida and Texas last week, according to Jeffrey Zients, White House COVID-19 response coordinator.

This comes as the CDC reports a 44% increase in daily new cases in the last week of July. Last week's average of daily new COVID-19 cases is "higher than our peak of last summer," according to CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky.

At press briefing at the White House Tuesday, Zients expressed concern about the number of cases of COVID-19 being reported in communities with lower vaccination rates. Zients said about 90 million eligible Americans remain unvaccinated. "Each and every shot matters," Zients added.

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According to Zients, over the past two weeks:

There's been a 70% increase in the average number of new people getting vaccinated daily.

A 50% increase in the average number of 12- to 17-year-olds getting vaccinated daily.

And in the last week, 3 million Americans got their first shot. On Tuesday, the U.S. hit President Biden's July Fourth goal of 70% of adults receiving at least one shot.

Zients said that in the eight states with the highest case rate, the rate at which people are getting vaccinate has also increased.

"While we desperately want to be done with this pandemic, COVID-19 is clearly not done with us," Walensky said Monday, "and so our battle must last a little longer."

This story originally appeared on the Morning Edition Live Blog. [Copyright 2021 NPR]