About 13,500 with 339 new daily deaths, a per Johns Hopkins data. But experts are cautioning against complacency, warning of a fall spike if the US does not ramp up towards heard immunity. "You (the unvaccinated) are not better protected than you were in January 2020. And, actually, you're less protected, because the virus is better at its job than it was in January 2020. Please stop waiting. This is t he time, particularly if the Delta variant is going to hit us. It will hit us in the fall. And it may hit us pretty hard, "University of California's Dr. Robert Wachter said on Public Broadcasting Service. Having vaccinated most of its elderly who are the most at risk of dying from Covid-19, the US has achieved a measure of local and demographic heard immunity but is leery of localised outbreaks in low-vaccinated areas. Experts say the variant is 50% more transmissible than the original strain, engenders four times more hospitalisation risk, and can evade the first vaccine dose. In perhaps his strongest remark, Biden said the consequences would be "devastating for Russia" if jailed opposition leader Alexei Navanlxy, who has recovered from a hunger-strike to protest against his detention conditions died. Both men said Moscow and Washington shared a responsibility for nuclear stability and would hold talks on possible changes to their recently extended New Start arms limitation treaty. Putin showed little appetite for compromise on a range of other issues, dismissing Washington's concerns about Navalny, about Russia's increased military presence near Ukaraine's eastern border, and about US suggestions that unidentified Russians were responsible for a series of Cyber attacks in US. Putin said Navalny had ignored the law and had known what would happen if he returned to Russia.
