Mask wearing in public – Vaccination rate slows down – Traffic, air and road, for Fourth of July weekend – Evening statistics
The easing in mask-wearing requirements is still sporadic. Today, when I visited my mother’s assisted-living facility, masks were still required, which seems reasonable enough for a building whose residents all fall within the most susceptible segment of the population at large. Somewhat more puzzling is the requirement to wear masks at the local bank, in an area where the large majority of stores and services such as barbers no longer impose this restriction. At this point I still take a face mask with me whenever I leave the house: it is possible that I won’t have to use it for performing any errands I undertake on a given day, but it still remains not at all certain.
We are not going to reach the goal of 70% of all adults having received at least one dose by July 4th, as Biden had hoped. At present the amount of adults who have received at least one dose is 66.5% and the amount of fully vaccinated adults is 57.4%. Still, we should be able to claim that two-thirds of American adults will have received at least one dose by July 4th – quite a respectable number, although of course one hopes for better over the next few months. These hopes may go unfulfilled; at this point only about 3% of those who have not yet been vaccinated plan to get a vaccine as soon as they can.
This weekend is expected to be the busiest on the roads since the pandemic began, indeed, the 43 million Americans expected to drive on the Fourth of July weekend will exceed the amount of drivers during that same weekend in 2019 by 5%. This is so, despite the steadily increasing price of gas, the highest it has been since 2014. The current national average is $3.09. Air travel is also supposed to be congested as well. The destinations are still mainly domestic for the most part, with Miami, Orlando and Las Vegas being the top choices for travelers, but some are venturing on international travel as well, chiefly to Mexico and the Caribbean nations.
Yesterday’s statistics as of 11:00 PM – # of cases worldwide: 182,580,354; # of deaths worldwide: 3,953,846; # of cases U.S.: 34,527,493; # of deaths; U.S.: 619,980 .
Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide: 182,953,005; # of deaths worldwide: 3,962,118; # of cases U.S.: 34,542,406; # of deaths; U.S.: 620,212.