COVID-19 cases are surging in almost every US state

The number of daily new COVID-19 infections has shot up almost 50 percent in the United States amid the spread of the highly contagious Delta variant — with rises even recorded in states with high vaccination rates, data shows.

The US on Tuesday recorded an average of 19,455 new cases per day over the last seven days — up 47.5 percent from the previous week, according to a USA Today analysis of data from Johns Hopkins University.

But deaths from the pandemic have continued to dip nationwide, down about 25 percent — to an average of 154 during the most recent 7-day period, down from 205 the prior week, according to the Centers for Disease Control.