"This week's national ensemble predicts that the number of newly reported COVID-19 cases will likely decrease over the next 4 weeks, with 25,000 to 162,000 new cases likely reported in the week ending June 26," the CDC said Wednesday.

Pediatric cases are going down

About 16,281 new cases of Covid-19 among children were reported during the week ending June 3, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics.

"This marks the lowest number of new weekly cases reported in the past year, since June 2020," the AAP said.

While adults and children ages 12 and up can get vaccinated, children under 12 are not eligible yet.

"For the week ending June 3, children were 17.2% of new reported weekly COVID-19 cases."

While children are far less likely to die from the coronavirus than older adults, at least 309 children in the US have died from Covid-19, the CDC says.

Some youngsters are suffering from long Covid-19 or multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) -- a rare but potentially serious condition that can happen in children weeks after a coronavirus infection.

And a recent increase in Covid-19 hospitalizations among children ages 12 to 17 reinforces the importance of vaccination or wearing masks for those not vaccinated, according to a study released Friday in the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

CDC Director Dr.

She said the data should "redouble our motivation to get our adolescents and young adults vaccinated."

The pediatricians' group says it's important for unvaccinated children over the age 2 to keep wearing masks in public places.

"I really think it depends a lot on how well we do at convincing people to get vaccinated and how well we do at getting vaccines out to kids once they're approved."

Daily Covid-19 deaths are decreasing

Over the past week, Covid-19 has killed an average of more than 400 Americans a day, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

Its previous forecast, published May 26, projected a total of 606,000 US Covid-19 deaths by June 19.

Covid-19 hospitalizations are expected to keep improving

"The number of cases, hospitalizations and deaths from Covid-19 are all declining because millions have stepped forward to get the Covid-19 vaccine," Walensky said May 25.

Hospitalizations "will likely decrease over the next 4 weeks, with 700 to 3,700 new confirmed COVID-19 hospital admissions likely reported on June 28, 2021," according to a CDC ensemble forecast published Wednesday.

Scholarships, vacations and million-dollar prizes could spur more vaccinations

Businesses and states are offering big incentives for vaccination -- including chances to win four-year college scholarships, tropical vacations, free beer and $1 million -- to encourage more Americans to help end this pandemic.

CVS is giving away 1,000 prizes to people who get vaccinated at its pharmacies, including free cruises, tropical vacations, a VIP trip to Super Bowl LVI, gift cards for date nights and $5,000 cash prizes for family reunions.

Ohio is giving away five $1 million prizes to adults and five full-ride college scholarships to children ages 12 to 17 who get vaccinated.

(As of Monday, 63.7% of US adults had received at least one dose of vaccine.)

Another incentive to vaccination has been less tangible: the ability to safely go mask-free and stop social distancing in most places.

Shortly after Walensky said fully vaccinated people don't need to wear masks in most settings, interest in Covid-19 vaccines soared on May 13.

VaccineFinder powers vaccines.gov -- where people can find vaccination sites nearby.

Actual vaccinations -- not just visits to the website -- also went up on May 13 after nearly a month of decline, according to CDC data.

But since then, the number of new people fully vaccinated has dropped off each week, according to the data.

As of Monday, only 42% of Americans have been fully vaccinated, according to CDC data.

"When you have highly (transmissible) variants like the B.1.1.7 variant, what that means is we're going to have to achieve 75%, 80% of the entire US population," Hotez said.

And all the adults, all the adolescents need to be vaccinated."

Vaccinated Americans are returning to normal life

Many states lifted mask mandates after the CDC said most fully vaccinated people don't need to mask up in most places.