Nearly Half of New U.S. Virus Infections Are in Just 5 States

State health agency data compiled by Johns Hopkins University found 44 percent of new coronavirus infections nationwide are in just five U.S. states, reports Yahoo! News . New York, Michigan, Florida, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey cumulatively posted 197,500 new cases in the latest available seven-day period, while total U.S. infections during the same week topped 452,000. Some experts and elected officials are urging the Biden administration to ship additional vaccine doses to those states, although the White House has thus far made no indication of deviating from its policy of splitting vaccine doses among states based on populace. Washington University Professor Elvin H. Geng said although sending extra shots to those places is sensible, states that are successfully containing the pandemic might consequently have less vaccine. The increase in cases has been particularly pronounced in Michigan, where the weeklong average of daily new infections totaled 6,719 cases Sunday — more than twice the number two weeks earlier.