Daily COVID-19 deaths appear to rise nearly 300% - but true figures are actually significantly lower as data dump from Florida and Delaware skews Johns Hopkins tally
The daily death toll from COVID-19 appeared to rise nearly 300 per cent in 24 hours Friday - but the true figures were actually significantly lower as a data dump from Florida and Delaware skewed Johns Hopkins University's tally.
The figure trebled from 321 on Thursday to 891 on Friday raising fears that the more highly contagious Delta variant is now translating into spiraling fatalities nationwide.
Florida made up almost half of the daily tally, with 409 of the deaths recorded coming from the Sunshine State.
The state only reports its COVID-19 figures once a week on a Friday, meaning all deaths over the last seven days are added to the total in one lump sum and that the real daily change in the last 24 hours remains unknown.
Delaware also played a major part in sending the figures skyrocketing, as officials announced 130 new deaths Friday.
However, these deaths occurred between mid-May 2020 and late June this year with officials adding them Friday following a state review of death certificates.
In fact, the state recorded zero COVID-19 deaths within the last 24 hours with just two fatalities recorded over the last week.
Michigan also contributed to Friday's confusion, reporting 23 deaths compared to zero the previous day. In a similar sense to Florida, the state only posts its COVID-19 data twice a week on Tuesdays and Fridays, distorting the tally.
The number of new COVID-19 cases on Friday rose to 194,608. On Thursday, 78,170 new infections were recorded
The number of new deaths in a 24-hour period rose to 891 on Friday. On Thursday, 321 deaths were recorded but this tally appears to have been skewed by huge data dumps from Florida and Delaware
While the differences in reporting practices across states, makes it difficult to give a precise change in daily death toll nationwide, this reveals are far less frightening picture than first thought.
Following the removal of these three anomalies, daily deaths instead climbed 2.5 percent from 321 Thursday to 329.
This more closely correlates what experts have said about the new surge in COVID-19 cases - that deaths are not rising at the same rate and have remained relatively flat thanks to the vaccine rollout.
COVID-19 cases have been rising nationwide due to the spread of the more highly contagious Delta variant.
The number of new cases also rose to 190,000 on Friday, compared to 78,170 on Thursday.
Dr Scott Gottlieb, the former FDA commissioner, said on Friday he believes there is a significant under-reporting of COVID-19 cases at present. He said the daily caseload could be one million - four times that of the January peak
At the pandemic's peak, 300,000 new COVID-19 cases were recorded on January 2, and the highest number of deaths was recorded on January 12, with 4,460 people dying.
The country has now reported 34,945,468 cases of COVID-19, and 613,013 deaths, according to the John Hopkins University. Fifty per cent of the country is fully vaccinated.
The current seven-day average of new daily coronavirus cases in the U.S. is roughly 67,000, according to a CNBC analysis of Johns Hopkins University data - an increase of 53 per cent compared to a week ago.
The highest seven-day day average of new COVID cases recorded in the U.S. was roughly 251,000 on January 8.
Case counts had dropped off dramatically in the spring as the country's vaccination campaign picked up speed.
Dr Scott Gottlieb, the former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration on Friday said he believes that up to 1 million Americans could soon be infected with COVID-19 every day - four times that of the January peak.
He told CNBC he believes the coronavirus is significantly more widespread in the U.S. than official case counts reflect.
'I wouldn't be surprised if, on the whole, we're infecting up to a million people a day right now, and we're just picking up maybe a 10th of that or less than a 10th of that,' he said.
Gottlieb's assessment would mean that the Delta variant is infecting four times as many people as during the peak of the previous surge, in January.
'What it reflects is a reality where you have a highly transmissible variant that's widely spread across the U.S. right now that's spreading mostly in a population that's either vaccinated and developing mild symptoms or no symptoms at all; or spreading in a younger population that's also less likely to develop symptoms because they're younger, healthier,' said Gottlieb.
'Most of the spread and most of the people who are showing up in the hospital are younger people. If that's where the infection is occurring, then there must be a lot more infection underneath the small numerator that's showing up in the hospital.'
In Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis declared Friday that there will not be any new COVID-19 restrictions as the state health department reported a 50% jump in coronavirus cases this week.
This data shows a continuing a six-week surge, making the state the outbreak's epicenter and responsible for one in five new infections nationally.
The Florida Department of Health's report came just hours after DeSantis signed an executive order banning schools from requiring students to wear face masks when they return to class next month.
His edict, which is effective immediately, also stressed that 'all parents have the right to make healthcare decisions for their minor children,' - such as whether to mask them up.
Meanwhile, more than 110,000 new coronavirus cases were reported statewide over the past week, up from 73,000 last week and 11 times the 10,000 reported the week of June 11, six weeks ago. Case numbers are now back to where they in January, just before vaccinations became widely available.
In the US, 50% of Americans are fully vaccinated while 57% have received their first dose
In New York, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced on Twitter on Friday that the highly contagious virus strain now accounted for 75 percent of new coronavirus cases in the state.
Meanwhile, official data from New York City shows the strain is beginning to take its toll there as well, accounting for 72 percent of cases.
The Indian 'Delta' variant is believed to be behind outbreaks in both the state and city as public health experts and local leaders urge people to get vaccinated.
After enjoying declines for several weeks, New York has been seeing cases in increase over the past month..
The state is averaging 1,049 new cases per day, a 131 percent increase over the 454 cases per day average from two weeks ago, according to data from the CDC.
Despite the recent increases, case rates are still relatively low compared to other states, largely because of the state's high vaccination rate.
In New York, 63 percent of residents have received at least one shot of a COVID-19 vaccine, and 57 percent are fully vaccinated.
Cuomo is trying to push that rate higher, though.
On Wednesday, the governor announced that all state employees will either have to get vaccinated or subject themselves to regular COVID testing, starting on Labor Day.
The Delta variant now accounts for 72 percent of new cases in New York City
Cases in New York have increased by 131 percent over the past two weeks, but still remain relatively low
Both Governor Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio announced vaccine or testing mandates for their employees this week
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio made a similar decision earlier this week, announcing that 300,000 municipal workers in the city will either have to get vaccinated or subject themselves to regular testing in order to continue working.
The densely populated city accounts for a majority of the state's COVID-19 cases.
As of Friday, an average of 788 new cases every day are being found in New York City, an increase from 430 two weeks ago.
The city is also lagging behind the rest of the state in its vaccine rollout, with only 59.5 percent of residents having received at least one shot of the vaccine, and 54.6 percent fully vaccinated.
Joe Biden has been strongly urging people to get vaccinated. On May 13 he celebrated the announcement that face masks were no longer necessary - something critics have seized upon
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The Indian 'Delta' variant causes infections that are more contagious than the common cold, flu, smallpox and the Ebola virus, and it is as infectious as chickenpox, the CDC claimed in a new research published on Friday.
It claims COVID-19 vaccines are still highly effective against the Delta variant at preventing serious illness and death, but detailed an outbreak in Provincetown, Cape Cod, over the July 4 weekend which saw many vaccinated people become infected. No one who was vaccinated died.
Only 6,587 - or 0.004 per cent - of the 163 million Americans who have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 had suffered serious 'breakthrough' infections as of Monday.
The report attributed 430 cases to the outbreak. The cluster jumped to 931 cases on Thursday. About 74 per cent, or 364 cases, had been fully vaccinated. At least 79 per cent reported symptoms.
The Indian 'Delta' variant is more dangerous in several ways, Kaiser Health News claimed in a report, saying the incubation period is four days, rather than six, making people contagious sooner.
When the pandemic began, people spread the original coronavirus to an average of two or three people. Today, people infected with delta infect six people, on average.
It is not believed to be any more lethal, but it kills more people because it infects more.
British scientists have questioned some of the claims made by the CDC.
Professor David Livermore, an infectious diseases expert from the University of East Anglia, said vaccine-triggered immunity and the endless waves of COVID which nations have endured meant there were fewer susceptible people around for people to infect.
'The US, like the UK, has substantial immunity from prior infection and from vaccination,' he told MailOnline.
'This will surely be a major drag on Delta's spread, precluding (viral spread) numbers of that magnitude.'
And Professor Julian Tang, a virologist at Leicester University, said the theory was likely just 'speculation' because it was very difficult to track down the number of cases sparked by a single infection.
In the United Kingdom, the Delta outbreak is showing encouraging signs of being on the wane.
Joe Biden on Friday night told reporters that new restrictions were likely on their way to stem the spread of the COVID-19 outbreak
Delta outbreaks tend to last 10 to 12 weeks, as the virus 'burns through' susceptible populations.
COVID hospitalizations in England have fallen for first time since third wave took off and Department of Health statistics show the average number of patients needing care also fell sharply.
To counter the rising raise of U.S. infection, the White House is pushing for Americans to get their COVID vaccine - but has said repeatedly they won't mandate people get their shot in the arm.
Dr Rochelle Walensky, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Friday that it was being discussed - but then backtracked, and tweeted that it was not.
Dr Rochelle Walensky, the director of the CDC, appeared on Fox News on Friday and said that discussions were being held about a possible federal vaccine mandate. She said she could not go into details
'Yesterday, almost a million people got vaccinated, about half a million people for the first time,' President Biden said, calling it 'good news.'
Biden is requiring the more than two million employees of the federal government get vaccinated or submit to regular COVID testing.
The White House has said vaccine requirements are up to private businesses.
On Friday, Disney and Walmart, two of America's largest employers, announced a vaccine requirement for their employees.
The president on Friday warned Americans that new restrictions could be on their way, to curb the spread of COVID.
While he did not specify what the new restrictions would entail, the White House on Friday said that they were not planning on reintroducing lockdowns.
Karine Jean-Pierre, the principal deputy press secretary, was asked whether there have been 'conversations in the White House or between the White House and its scientific advisors about more lockdowns, partial lockdowns or anything along those lines'.
Jean-Pierre responded: 'We have the tools in our toolbelt to fight this variant.
'We are not going to head towards a lockdown.
'We want to make sure that we're doing everything that we can because we have the resources to make sure that doesn't happen.'
A new CDC report detailed 469 cases of COVID-19 linked to an outbreak in Provincetown, Massachusetts between July 3 and July 17, of which 74% were in fully vaccinated people
Only four of the vaccinated people were hospitalized, two of whom had underlying conditions, and there were no deaths. This shows vaccines are effective even against the Delta variant, which now makes up 83% of all new infections
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