Where vaccinations are up, Covid-19 cases are down

As newly reported Covid-19 cases in the United States drop to some of the lowest levels of the pandemic, the link between vaccinations and transmission is getting clearer — exposing pockets of at-risk populations, but also a safer path forward.

 

A CNN analysis found that states that have fully vaccinated more than half of their residents tend to have lower-than-average case rates that are trending down, while states that have vaccinated less than half of their residents had higher average case rates.

 

Most of the states that saw an increase in cases over the past seven days compared to the week before had fully vaccinated fewer than 40% of their residents.

 

As in the early days of the pandemic, outbreaks may appear "random," but now we know that infections are spreading mostly in unvaccinated people.

 

"We tend to be in contact with people who have similar vaccination status as ourselves, so unvaccinated people are more likely to connect with other unvaccinated people. But there will be occasional outbreaks even in relatively well-vaccinated communities," William Hanage, a member of Harvard University's Center for Communicable Disease Dynamics and associate professor of epidemiology, told CNN.