White House Chief Medical Advisor Anthony Fauci has said that the recent surge in COVID cases across US was caused by the highly virulent Delta variant, as well as the large unvaccinated population of the nation.
"It is really a pandemic among the unvaccinated, so this is an issue predominantly among the unvaccinated, which is the reason why we are out there, practically pleading with the unvaccinated people to go out and get vaccinated," said Fauci.
While the US still has the highest number of confirmed cases, India had surpassed the country in terms of new daily cases in the past few weeks.
However, as infections started to stagnate in India, the US again surpassed India's tally of new cases.
According to official data, the US on Monday reported a staggering seven-day average of 52,000 infections.
A new study also found that the total number of COVID infections in US may have been undercounted by as much as 60 per cent.
According to a study by researchers at the University of Washington, as many as 65 million Americans may have already been infected.
As of Tuesday, the total confirmed cases of the pandemic surpassed 34.6 million, while the country's death toll amounted to over 611,410, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
Last week, 48 states have a seven-day average of new cases at least 10 percent higher than the week before. In 34 of those states, the rate of new cases increased by more than 50 percent, said the university.