National Institutes of Health director predicts US will see 200,000 new daily COVID-19 cases in coming weeks

• The last time the US experienced this level of new COVID-19 cases was during the 2020-21 winter surge.
• There has been a 648% increase in the number of new COVID-19 cases reported in the US since July 1.
• Several Southern states with low vaccination rates have experienced surges that are stretching their hospitals' resources.

In an interview on Fox News Sunday, National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins said that the US may soon reach 200,000 new cases of COVID-19 a day, a level of transmission last seen during the winter surge.

"That was January, February, that shouldn't be August. But here we are with the Delta variant, which is so contagious, and this heartbreaking situation where 90 million people are still unvaccinated, who are sitting ducks for this virus, and that's the mess we're in," Francis told host Chris Wallace.

The country registered more than 140,000 new cases of COVID-19 on August 13, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Since July 1, there has been a 648% increase in the number of new cases reported in the US, partially due to surges in Southern states with low vaccination rates like Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi.

Several health care systems have been so inundated with severe COVID-19 cases that they have either had to ration or run out of ICU beds, ambulances, and hospital staff.

A handful of hospitals throughout Texas and Mississippi have had to set up overflow tents for additional patients due to recent influxes of COVID-19 patients.