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COVID-19 deaths and cases in the U.S. have climbed back to levels not seen since last winter, erasing months of progress and potentially bolstering President Joe Biden’s argument for his sweeping new vaccination requirements. The cases — driven by the delta variant combined with resistance among some Americans to getting the vaccine — are concentrated mostly in the South. (Hollingsworth, Bussewitz and Long, 9/14)

Hospitals in the southern United States are running dangerously low on space in intensive care units, as the Delta variant has led to spikes in coronavirus cases not seen since last year’s deadly winter wave. One in four hospitals now reports more than 95 percent of I.C.U. beds occupied — up from one in five last month. Experts say it can become difficult to maintain standards of care for the sickest patients in hospitals where all or nearly all I.C.U. beds are occupied. (Smart, 9/14)

The United States has reached another grim milestone in its fight against the devastating Covid-19 pandemic: 1 in 500 Americans have died from coronavirus since the nation's first reported infection. As of Tuesday night, 663,913 people in the US have died of Covid-19, according to Johns Hopkins University data. According to the US Census Bureau, the US population as of April 2020 was 331.4 million. (Holcombe, 9/15)

Six weeks since the Mississippi State Department of Health began reporting COVID-19 cases in public schools, over 20,000 pre-K through 12th grade students have tested positive for the virus. Over 1,800 Mississippi students were infected by the coronavirus last week and nearly 10,500 students, teachers and staff were quarantined after possible exposure to COVID-19. Of 799 schools reporting from 75 of Mississippi's 82 counties, there were 74 COVID-19 outbreaks in schools statewide between Sept. 6 to 10, according to the health department's Tuesday report. The 10,209 students in quarantine make up over 2.3% of the public school population. (Haselhorst, 9/14)

The new school year had barely started in West Virginia when two counties were forced to move courses online temporarily due to a surge in coronavirus cases. Preston County Schools announced it was shutting down in-person learning effective Tuesday. Students will return to school Sept. 27. In Calhoun County, schools were closed last week because of a high number of absences and students are set to go back Thursday. (Raby, 9/14)

About 60 percent of current Covid outbreaks in Georgia are occurring in K-12 schools across the state, public health officials said Tuesday. That’s seven times more than the child outbreaks in previous virus surges, Cherie Drenzek, the state epidemiologist, told the board of the Department of Public Health. Cases, hospitalizations and deaths among children have reached their highest levels during the current surge of the pandemic, she added. And many of the infections are hitting 12- to 18-year-olds, who are eligible for vaccinations. (Miller, 9/14)

A new color-coded dashboard from the state now lets parents see when a Utah school is at or nearing the designated level for a COVID-19 outbreak — but experts warn the numbers are likely undercounts because many parents are refusing to talk to health officials when their kids test positive. Not knowing the actual number of cases has made it a serious challenge to respond quickly with efforts to limit spread in the classroom, the Utah Department of Health said Tuesday. “School-associated cases are identified through interviews with cases by the local health departments, and only school-associated cases that have been linked to a school are displayed” on the dashboard, the department says on the site. (Tanner, 9/14)