COVID-19 yet to be 'vanquished': Biden warns US as 'powerful variants' wreak havoc

As millions of American residents celebrated the 4th of July with almost negligible restrictions, President Joe Biden warned that the coronavirus infection was yet to the “vanquished” despite the initial progress made. Addressing a 1000 strong crowd at the White House’s South lawn POTUS said, “We've gained the upper hand against this virus” but the infection has not been “vanquished” and “powerful variants” including the Delta variant have emerged.

More than 2,000 counties representing over half of the American population have not met Biden’s goal of 70 percent of adults receiving at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine by Independence Day, according to an analysis by The Washington Post. Most ominously, the rapid spread of delta variant has undone country’s initial progress against COVID-19. Amidst an environment of skepticism against vaccine shots, some areas like Missouri’s border with Arkansas and Oklahoma and Mesa County in Colorado are witnessing new outbreaks.

'Independence from virus' 

Regardless, the American leader gave an upbeat review of country’s pandemic response. Drawing a comparison between the declaration of independence from the British Empire in 1776 and today's rapid recovery from the coronavirus the top democratic said “Two hundred and forty five years ago, we declared our independence from a distant king. Today, we are closer than ever to declaring our independence from a deadly virus.”

COVID-19 and vaccine skepticism

While the country of more than 300 million people had witnessed some success in curbing the spread of the lethal infection in spring, the emergence of delta strain combined with vaccine hesitancy in some regions has darkened the mood of the country. Since the outbreak, America’s COVID caseload has surged to 34,592,377, out of whom 621,293 have died while over 29,096,816 people have recovered.

Earlier this week, White House chief Medical advisor Dr Anthony Fauci highlighted the vaccine hesitancy in the country calling it “sad” and “tragic”. As per a recent poll jointly conducted by Washington Post-ABC News, third of American adults who had not had a shot said they would not or probably would not get one. Of those respondents, nearly three-quarters said officials like Fauci were exaggerating the risk posed by the Delta variant. A little more than three-quarters believed they had little or no risk of contracting Covid-19.

Image: AP