Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky advised unvaccinated people against traveling for the upcoming Labor Day weekend as the US battles a surge in Covid-19 hospital admissions from the highly contagious Delta variant.
“Given the current situation with disease transmission, we would say that people need to consider these risks for themselves when considering travel,” Walensky said during a Covid briefing at the White House Tuesday, noting that people who fully vaccinated and wearing masks can travel. “If you are not vaccinated, we advise you not to travel.”
Health systems in the United States have struggled with record hospital admissions in the past few weeks, with several states such as Washington, Mississippi and Florida all hitting record numbers of new Covid cases and hospital admissions.
The current seven-day average of new Covid infections in the US is 129,418 cases per day, a 10% decrease from the previous week’s seven-day average, Walensky said.
The seven-day average for Covid hospital admissions is around 11,500 hospital admissions per day, a decrease of about 5% from last week’s seven-day average, she said, citing data provided by the centers for that Disease control and prevention were collected.
Covid deaths had only increased 2.3% from the previous week to a seven-day average of 896 deaths per day, she said.
Walensky also recommended spending time with other vaccinated family members outdoors on Labor Day weekend and masking oneself indoors, especially in public, to prevent transmission.
“During the pandemic, we saw the vast majority of transmission among unvaccinated people happen indoors,” Walensky said. “Masks aren’t forever, but they are for now.”
