Residents line up with chairs on the side of the street as they watch an Independence Day celebration parade July 4, 2021 in Brighton, Michigan.
Émilie Elconin | Getty Images News | Getty Images
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Americans are set to celebrate July 4 after the coronavirus pandemic forced most events to be canceled last year, giving hope that life is on the way to a semblance of normalcy as cases and deaths from Covid-19 are nearing record lows.
The White House has encouraged people to gather and watch fireworks to mark the country’s “independence” from the virus. Businesses and restaurants are reopening across the country as restrictions are relaxed and air travel briefly exceeded 2019 levels at the start of the holiday weekend.
President Joe Biden is even expected to throw an Independence Day party with 1,000 essential workers and military families on the South Lawn of the White House on Sunday, marking the president’s first large-scale event.
He will speak at 7:30 p.m.
Although the country has made significant progress against the pandemic due to the rollout of vaccination, the weekend of July 4 also comes as U.S. health officials monitor the spread of the delta variant of Covid, which is believed to be more transmissible than other strains earlier in the pandemic.
Coronavirus cases are well below the peak in January, when the country recorded more than 300,000 new cases in a single day, according to CNBC analysis of data from Johns Hopkins University.
Still, cases have tended to increase in recent days and some health officials warn the United States is yet to declare victory over the pandemic due to the delta variant, which now includes around a quarter of infections among mostly unvaccinated people.
The seven-day average of new daily Covid cases in the United States on Sunday was 13,196, an 11% increase from last week, according to CNBC’s analysis of JHU data.
Deaths in the United States have been slowing for months. The seven-day average of new Covid deaths is 225, down 23% from the previous week, according to CNBC analysis.
More than 600,000 people in the United States have died during the pandemic.
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White House Covid Czar Jeff Zients defended the upcoming Biden administration’s upcoming July 4 holiday on Sunday and said the United States had “a lot to celebrate,” citing that two in three adult Americans had received at least one dose of the vaccine.
“We’re a lot further along than I think in this fight against the pandemic,” Zients said in an ABC interview on “This Week.”
In fact, the administration narrowly missed its goal of fully immunizing 160 million Americans and having 70% of adults with at least one injection by July 4. But nearly 156 million Americans are now fully vaccinated and more than 182 million have received at least one dose, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Dr Scott Gottlieb told CNBC on Friday that most people should feel comfortable congregating over Independence Day weekend, citing high vaccination rates and low infection levels viral in much of the country.
“The prevalence is very low across the country. You have to judge by where you are, ”Gottlieb said on“ Squawk Box ”. “In some parts of the country where you see the prevalence increasing… I think people should be more careful. “
According to the CDC, about 1,000 counties in the United States, mostly located in the Southeast and Midwest, have vaccine coverage below 30%. And in some countries, the delta variant rates can reach 50%.
Dr Anthony Fauci, the nation’s foremost infectious disease expert, said on Sunday that residents of areas with low vaccination rates, such as Mississippi, should “go the extra mile” and wear a mask even though they are are vaccinated.
“If you put yourself in an environment where you have a high level of viral dynamics and a very low level of vaccine, you might want to take it that extra step … even though the vaccines themselves are very effective,” said Fauci in an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press”.
The Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines were cleared by the Food and Drug Administration for emergency use in December, followed by the Johnson & Johnson vaccine in February.
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