The United States is averaging three times more cases of COVID-19 than it did a year ago.
According to data from Johns Hopkins University, the seven-day average of daily new cases in the U.S. was 137,270 as of Monday.
At the same time last year, the U.S. was averaging just over 39,000 a day.
The surge in cases is blamed on the delta variant, which health officials say is more transmissible than other variants.
The U.S. is facing a different type of pandemic this wave. Now, people have the option to be vaccinated against COVID-19. Vaccines were not available at this time last year.
Widespread vaccinations have helped limit COVID-19 deaths.
Despite seeing more than three times as many daily cases on Labor Day 2021 compared to last year, the U.S. only sees about 1.8 times as many daily deaths.
The bad news? Hospitalizations are far higher now than they were at this time last year, meaning an impending fall spike in hospital resource use could be devastating.
Concerns regarding an impending spike from Labor Day prompted CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walesnky last week to recommend that those who are not vaccinated avoid travel.
Despite the warnings from the CDC, the Transportation Security Administration screened 7.3 million travelers between Friday and Monday, compared to 3.2 million travelers for the same weekend in 2020. That marks a year-over-year increase of more than 4 million additional travelers.
