The U.S. States Hit Hardest By the New COVID Wave

The new wave of COVID-19 which is peaking in the U.S. as the first after an extensive vaccination campaign has had very different regional effects. Data collected by The New York Times shows that Southern states are seeing an outsized share of cases relative to their populations. Mississippi counted 106 new daily infections on average over the past seven days per 100,000 of its population, followed by Florida with 99 and South Carolina with 98.

Several Southern states are also among those having experienced some of the slowest vaccination uptakes in the country, with Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee all in the bottom ten for vaccination progress together with Wyoming, which also saw cases soar.

Florida's vaccination rate, on the other hand, corresponds to the national average of around 53 percent of the population being fully vaccinated. Among the states seeing 51 to 75 new average daily infections per 100,000 people, vaccination rates ranked between 39 percent and 58 percent. For states seeing 25 or fewer, vaccination rates were higher, between 51 percent and 68 percent.