The increasing rates of new COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths in Texas are showing steeper jumps than past surges, the Associated Press reports. 

The rolling seven-day average of new COVID-19 cases has soared by 92% from last week, hospitalizations rose by 49%, while the rolling seven-day average of vaccinations has also climbed about 75% in the past month.

Associated Press: “The requirement would come as part of the administration’s phased approach to easing travel restrictions for foreign citizens to the country. No timeline has yet been determined, as interagency working groups study how and when to safely move toward resuming normal travel. Eventually all foreign citizens entering the country, with some limited exceptions, are expected to need to be vaccinated against Covid-19 to enter the U.S.”

“Physicians working in Covid hot spots across the nation say that the patients in their hospitals are not like the patients they saw last year,” the New York Times reports.

“Almost always unvaccinated, the new arrivals tend to be younger, many in their 20s or 30s. And they seem sicker than younger patients were last year, deteriorating more rapidly.”

“Doctors have coined a new phrase to describe them: ‘younger, sicker, quicker.’ Many physicians treating them suspect that the Delta variant of the coronavirus, which now accounts for more than 80 percent of new infections nationwide, is playing a role.”