courtney kube, thank you for being with us. we appreciate your reporting. meanwhile, biden officials are skeptical that russian president vladimir putin will put an end to cyber attacks, despite talks. last month during the biden/putin sit-down in geneva, the two agreed to crack down on hackers targeting america. already russian hackers are blamed for attacks. a meeting between the two countries on ransomware attacks specifically is scheduled for next week. joining us now, the ceo of a cyber security assistance. she oversaw security for george w. bush and his staff. thank you for being here. we appreciate it.
good morning. i am kasie hunt on this friday, july 9th. we made it, and we ll start with the news. with the delta variant surge across the country, biden officials are offering another warning to americans still not vaccinated against the coronavirus. the seven-day average of covid-19 cases in the u.s. has gone up by about 11% since last week, particularly in states where the vaccination rates remain low. we are starting to see some new and concerning events. in some cases hospitalizations are up. we re seeing outbreaks of covid-19 in locations such as camps and community events where proper hard-learned strategies are not in force and the variant is able to strive.
that operation and planning because there s been so much red tape with the planning and visas? reporter: there has been. the u.s. government has the ability, if they really wanted to bring these people to the u.s. quickly third quarter could do it. there are a number of different means. they could change the law. the president could issue an executive order. there s a way to do it very quickly, and they ve chosen not at to do that. so the administration is making efforts to try to bring them here. there s already more than a thousand who have come. but thousands of them are stuck in this pipeline. part of that is it s not just that they re waiting for approval, but they have to wait for the flights to get out. many of them can t afford to fly to the u.s., so they re reliant on whether it s an ngo or u.s. government to provide a flight, and they just can t get out. the other thing we should look for, kasiekasie, in the weeks a as the taliban move toward kabul and if they start to thre
the delta variant is the dominant strain, but in some parts of the country lie the midwest and upper mountain states, that number is closer to 80%. meanwhile pfizer is working on a booster shot. the company says clinical studies could begin as early as august, subject to regulatory approvals. executives from pfizer have repeatedly said people will likely need a booster shot or possible third dose of the vaccine within 12 months of being fully vaccinated. meanwhile the biden administration is renewing its push to pass voting rights legislation. president biden and vice president harris met with a delegation of civil rights leaders at the white house yesterday to discuss how to combat the wave of restrictive voting laws. civil rights activists argued the need. democracy is under vigorous, vicious, and sinister attack,
beginning with the events of june january 6th at the capitol and cascading like a tsunami through state legislatures across the nation. the movement from the ground up is starting to be the only way that we can preserve our right to vote. we informed them that this is going to come not from the white house down but from our houses up. i told the president we will not be able to litigate our way out of this threat to black citizenship, voting, and political participation. we need legislation to be passed in congress, both h.r. 1 and h.r. 4. vice president harris announced the democratic national committee is invest 25g million in their voting rights campaign i will vote. texas republicans,