This photo taken on March 3, 2021 shows an inoculation of the COVID-19 Vaccine at Hartford Hospital in Hartford, Connecticut. (Photo by AFP)

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has reported a nationwide surge in new COVID-19 cases.

US media cited CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices as saying at a meeting on Friday that there had been a 700 percent rise in infections week-over-week since July 1.

William Moss, a professor of epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health confirmed the surge.

There’s no doubt we’re seeing a surge in cases now, he said, adding that several factors had contributed to the new wave of COVID-19.

The combination of the Delta variant, susceptibility due to relatively low vaccination coverage, some relaxing of our public health measures, these all came together and we’re seeing this wave, he pointed out.

CDC had reported earlier that full vaccinated people infected with the Delta variant could spread the virus to others, advising people to wear masks and observe social distancing to help stop the pandemic.

CDC also decided on Friday to go along with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recommendation for a third booster dose of COVID-19 vaccines for people with weakened immune systems.

Earlier, FDA had recommended an extra booster shot for people who had weakened immune systems; however, it left the matter in the hands of the CDC to decide who needed the extra shots and it was now up to the CDC to define exactly who should get the additional doses.

A CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices committee spent hours on Friday considering the evidence on the safety and effectiveness of extra shots for the specific group and after much deliberation voted unanimously to offer the third shot to Americans with the weakest immune systems whose immune systems do not work well, either because of disease or medication

The third vaccine should be available for the immunocompromised group, which makes up 2.7 percent of the population, in the next few days, US media reported.

Meanwhile, more than 2,500 patients added each day over the past week, according to data from the US Department of Health and Human Services -- the US will surpass January’s record high in about a month.

US media reported that the states of Florida and Louisiana were now reporting a record number of COVID-19 hospital admissions, and other states are close.

Mississippi and Arkansas showed higher daily admissions than 87 percent of their earlier peak, and in Oregon, Alabama, and Washington, daily admissions were at more than 75 percent of their peak.

More than 36,700,000 Americans have been diagnosed with COVID-19 and over 629,000 others died from the virus as of Thursday in the United States.

Despite the growing threat posed by the epidemic, the majority of unvaccinated people in the US believe that getting vaccinated posed an even bigger threat to them.

According to the poll carried out by the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) some more confident people who are not vaccinated, yet less worried about COVID-19 and show no care for the vaccine, think getting inoculated is riskier than getting infected.

Unvaccinated adults, especially those who say they will ‘definitely not’ get a vaccine, are much less worried about the coronavirus, the Delta variant, and have less confidence in the safety and effectiveness of the vaccines compared to those who are vaccinated, the KFF COVID-19 Vaccine Monitor announced in its Wednesday statement.