Rising COVID-19 cases are driving up the use of therapeutics, with Pfizer Inc.’s oral antiviral treatment Paxlovid seeing a 315 percent jump over the past four weeks, U.S. health officials said on May 17.
Reuters/Andrew KellyThe BA.2 Omicron subvariant of the coronavirus is responsible for 86% of U.S. COVID-19 cases and more than 90% of infections in the Northeast, according to data on April 12 from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
A winter storm that blasted the U.S. Northeast with snow, rain and gusty winds was likely to dump a foot (30 cm) or more of snow on parts of New England before heading out to sea.
New York, the former epicenter of the U.S. Covid-19 pandemic, became the fourth U.S. state to surpass half a million coronavirus cases amid a nationwide surge in infections.
The United States broke the country’s daily record for new coronavirus infections with a reported 84,218 new cases due to outbreaks in virtually every part of the country, according to a Reuters tally.
New York, New Jersey and Connecticut urged their residents to not travel between the three states as the U.S. Northeast sees a rise in Covid-19 cases, while California said major theme parks including Disneyland would not be opening anytime soon.
U.S. cases of the novel coronavirus crossed 8 million, rising by 1 million in less than a month, as another surge in cases hits the nation at the onset of cooler weather.
The number of new Covid-19 cases rose 11% in the United States last week compared to the previous seven days, with infections spreading rapidly in the Midwest, which reported some of the highest positive test rates, according to a Reuters analysis.
The number of new cases of the novel coronavirus reported in the United States fell 15 percent last week from the previous seven days, and deaths fell for a fourth week in a row, according to a Reuters analysis.
Several states in the U.S. Midwest and Northeast have seen new Covid-19 cases increase for two weeks in a row, though nationally both new infections and deaths last week remained on a downward trend, a Reuters analysis showed.