U.S. sees average daily count of over 100,000 COVID-19 cases

NEW YORK, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- As the highly transmissible Delta variant continued to spread in some U.S. states with low vaccination rates, the country's average daily count of COVID-19 cases climbed to over 100,000 on Friday, the highest level since the winter surge in 2020.

The seven-day average of newly reported infections in the United States reached 107,143, while the average population of deaths during the same period was nearly 500, according to the tally by the Johns Hopkins University.

The daily infected cases peaked at about 300,000 in early January and bottomed out in late June.

Health officials have warned that infections and deaths in the country will continue to grow if there are still a large number of Americans who refuse to be vaccinated.

"Our models show that if we don't (vaccinate people), we could be up to several hundred thousand cases a day, similar to our surge in early January," Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Rochelle Walensky told CNN this week.

The southern state of Florida registered a record-breaking 23,903 additional coronavirus cases on Friday, marking the third time this week that the state has surpassed its record of new daily cases, CDC figures showed.

About 49 percent of Florida's population has been fully vaccinated. The rate is lower than those of other large states such as California and New York, and higher than the states of Texas, Mississippi and Alabama.