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| COVID-19 cases hit a low point in the United States on June 22. |
| But a month later, data from the week ending July 21 reveals the number of new weekly cases has more than tripled, a USA TODAY analysis of Johns Hopkins University data shows. The spike comes as the highly-transmissible delta variant has come to dominate infections in the U.S., with unvaccinated populations across the country hardest hit. |
| The nation has already reported about 164,000 more cases in July than it reported in all of June. |
 | | SOURCE Johns Hopkins University data | | USA TODAY | |
| It's Thursday, and this is Coronavirus Watch from the USA TODAY Network. Here's more news you need to know: |
| • | The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits rose last week from the lowest point of the pandemic, even as the job market appears to be rebounding on the strength of a reopened economy. The Labor Department said Thursday that jobless claims increased last week to 419,000, the most in two months. | | • | Missouri announced a lucrative new vaccination lottery program and West Virginia gave away $1 million, scholarships, guns and vacations in its lottery as authorities across the nation scramble to re-energize lagging vaccination efforts. | | • | China on Thursday rejected the World Health Organization's plan for the second phase of a study into the origins of COVID-19. The country has dismissed the theory that the virus might have leaked from a Chinese lab as scientifically unsupported. | | • | Tokyo hit another six-month high in new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, one day before the Olympics begin. | |
| Today's numbers: The U.S. has reported more than 34.2 million COVID-19 cases and 609,900 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. Worldwide, there have been more than 192.2 million cases and more than 4.1 million deaths. About 56% of people in the U.S. have received at least one vaccine shot, and about 49% are fully vaccinated, according to the CDC. |
| Tracking the pandemic: See the numbers in your area here. See where cases are rising here. See vaccination rates here. And here, compare vaccinations rates worldwide and see which countries are using which vaccines. |
| – Grace Hauck, USA TODAY breaking news reporter, @grace_hauck |
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