PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The drive to get more Americans to get a COVID-19 booster shot appears to be falling short. The rate of new infections is going down in the Philadelphia region, but thousands in the U.S. are still dying every day.
According to the latest government figures, just 40% of fully vaccinated people have gotten a booster dose, and fewer booster shots are going into arms every day. The average had been as high as 1 million doses per day, in early December. It is now less than half that.
The surge of the coronavirus omicron variant is driving nearly 2,200 deaths per day, still the highest it has been in nearly a year. The vast majority of those people were unvaccinated.
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The rates of infections and hospitalizations are trending lower in the Philadelphia area. In New Jersey, hospitalizations are down from their peak of more than 6,000 on Jan. 10. Now, about 4,000 people are hospitalized in the Garden State.
In Philadelphia the situation is also improving, with about 1,100 COVID-19 patients currently in hospitals, about 500 fewer than the peak on Jan. 13.
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