American Coronavirus: More than 60% of all cases of Covid-19 in the United States have been reported since polling day. Now, experts warn one variant could spread further

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These astonishing figures follow sharp outbreaks in recent months – in which the United States has seen hundreds of thousands of new cases per day, while the number of hospitalizations and deaths from Covid-19 has reached record levels.

In Texas, the town of Laredo is running out of intensive care beds and has sent an emergency message to residents urging them to stay at home, city spokeswoman Noraida Negron said. Over the weekend, the city had to send several patients to hospitals in other areas to deal with the surge.

“We had no beds at all,” added Negron.

There are good reasons to keep your guard

And while new cases across the country also tend to drop since they peaked last week, experts are urging Americans not to let their guard down just yet.

On the one hand, even with the apparent improvement, the country still recorded an average of 207,000 new cases per day over the past seven days.

“The virus has established itself in the human population and it is not going anywhere,” infectious disease expert Amesh Adalja told CNN. “We’re going to see a lot of transmission until we cross the collective immunity threshold.”

But also, the Covid-19 variant first identified in the UK is spreading across the US and experts have warned that while it does not appear to be more deadly, it is more easily transmitted and will lead to even more infections.
More than 120 cases of the variant have been identified in 20 states, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And the agency warned last week that a variant trajectory pattern in the United States “shows rapid growth in early 2021.”

“In some ways it’s much worse that it’s more contagious because it will infect many, many more people and unfortunately end up killing more people,” said Dr Ashish Jha, Dean of Brown University School of Public Health , at CNN. Monday evening.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Monday that the variant was the biggest challenge the city faced.

“Our health leaders here in New York are saying that we are racing against time to get as many people as possible before this British variant spreads like wildfire,” he told CNN.

9 states administered more than half of their vaccine doses

In the United States, more than 12 million people have received the first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine and more than 31 million doses have been distributed, according to CDC data.

The ratio of administered doses to delivered doses is around 39% – but the metric varies wildly from state to state.

About nine states, and Washington, DC, administered more than 50% of the vaccine doses distributed, according to CDC data. These are Colorado, Connecticut, Kentucky, Louisiana, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Texas, and West Virginia.

Two states administered less than 25% of their doses: Alabama and Georgia.

How other states are trying to increase vaccinations

To increase their numbers, parts of the country are trying to find ways to increase vaccinations.

In Wisconsin, Governor Tony Evers was at the opening of a new Covid-19 vaccination site Monday at the Prevea Health / University of Wisconsin-Green Bay Kress Events Center.

Tommy Thompson, president of the University of Wisconsin system, said more vaccination sites will open soon, with the goal of opening sites on all 26 campuses in the system.

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz announced that the state is launching a pilot vaccination program and will work with local health and school districts to target certain populations.

“These sites will initially serve adults 65 years of age or older, as well as kindergarten to grade 12 educators, school staff and educators,” a statement from the governor’s office said. “The community immunization pilot program will form the basis of mass immunization clinics in communities across Minnesota once the federal government increases vaccine supply.

In California, all Los Angeles County residents aged 65 and over will be eligible to receive the vaccine later this week, under a new executive order signed by Oversight Board Chairman Hilda Solis.

California halts Covid-19 injections of vaccine batch containing more than 330,000 doses
It comes just days after county health officials said they didn’t have enough supplies to start vaccinating this age group, after the state expanded eligibility.

“If we are to ever get out of this gloomy winter, it is essential that we make progress on vaccinating people 65 and older as soon as possible – in line with the recommendations of Governor Gavin Newsom,” Solis said in a statement.

In Florida, 40,000 people are late for their second dose

Meanwhile, in Florida, more than 40,000 people who received their first dose of the vaccine are late for their second injection, according to the latest report from the state’s health department.

“Late” are defined as “those who have received their first dose and are past the recommended time to receive their second dose”.

It is not known why the residents are late.

The two vaccines that have been licensed for the US market are a two-dose series. The second dose should be administered 21 days after the first dose for Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine and 28 days after for Moderna vaccine.

The data comes as Dr Anthony Fauci emphasized the importance of sticking to the two full doses of the vaccine within the appropriate time frames.

Speaking at the Choose Healthy Life Black Clergy Conclave on Monday, Fauci said an experiment evaluating different dosage regimens was recently conducted in people between the ages of 18 and 55. The results showed that when a half dose was given followed by a half booster dose, the antibodies produced were comparable to that of a person who received two full doses.

“However, this is not clinical proof that they are also comparable in protecting you,” he said.

“Bottom line, stick to the full dose, followed by the full dose.”

CNN’s Amanda Watts, Ashley Killough, Naomi Thomas, Michael Nedelman, Lauren Mascarenhas, Gregory Lemos, Deidre McPhillips and Jacqueline Howard contributed to this report.

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