US Covid-19 cases hit 6-month high, mulls jabs for foreign travelers

The United States hit a six-month high for new Covid cases with over 100,000 infections reported on Wednesday, according to a Reuters tally, as the Delta variant ravages areas where people did not get vaccinated.
 
The country is reporting over 94,819 cases on a seven-day average, a five-fold increase in less than a month, Reuters data through Wednesday showed.
 
The seven-day average provides the most accurate picture of how fast cases are rising since some states only report infections once a week or only on weekdays.

"If another one comes along that has an equally high capability of transmitting but also is much more severe, then we could really be in trouble," Fauci said. "People who are not getting vaccinated mistakenly think it's only about them. But it isn't. It's about everybody else, also."

 
Meanwhile, the Biden administration is developing a plan to require nearly all foreign visitors to the US to be fully vaccinated against Covid-19 as part of eventually lifting travel restrictions that bar much of the world from entering the US, a White House official told Reuters on Wednesday.
 
The Biden administration has interagency working groups working "to have a new system ready for when we can reopen travel,” the official said, adding it includes “a phased approach that over time will mean, with limited exceptions, that foreign nationals traveling to the United States (from all countries) need to be fully vaccinated.”