<Anchor> In the
United States, the number of confirmed cases per day doubled within a week as the delta mutant virus spread rapidly. Hospital intensive care units are already saturated in some areas, especially in places where vaccination rates are low, as the number of patients increases.
Correspondent Yunsu Kim of Washington has delivered
<Reporter>
Over the past week, the average daily number of new COVID-19 cases in the United States is 25,000, which is a 99% increase or double from the previous week.
In 45 of the 50 U.S. states, COVID-19 cases are on the rise again.
While the spread of delta mutations is also an issue, infections are exploding in low-vaccinated states.
[Reiner/Professor George Washington University: One-third of all new infections in the United States are coming from five concentrated outbreaks. Florida, Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Nevada.]
Hospitals are saturated in high-end areas.
The federal government has dispatched a coronavirus response team to Missouri, where the situation is worst.
Unlike previous pandemics, this time the infection is spreading rapidly among the unvaccinated young people.
[Jarvis / Missouri State Hospital Doctor: You can see a lot of hospitalized patients in their 30s, 40s, and early 50s. There are also teenagers and pediatric patients.] As the
sense of crisis grows, there are calls to make vaccination compulsory and to wear a mask again across the United States.
The city of Chicago has re-issued travel advisories for two states, Missouri and Arkansas, which have low vaccination rates, just one month after normalization.
Health experts have repeatedly emphasized that one must choose between getting the vaccine or continuing to follow the quarantine rules, but the vaccine is the wiser choice.
(Video coverage: Jeong-sik Oh, video editing: Yang Won)