Joe Biden highlighted US progress in fighting coronavirus: “We have made impressive progress”

Joe Biden recalled on Tuesday the “impressive” progress of the United States in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic, speaking to the nation Tuesday from the White House.

“While we still have a long way to go in this fight, a lot of work to do in May and June to get to July 4th (Independence Day), we have made impressive progress because of all of you Americans. “, underlined the American president.

“The cases and deaths have decreased significantly from where they were when I took office,” he added.

Biden’s words came hours after U.S. health officials on Tuesday recommended that people vaccinated against COVID-19 who have completed the vaccination period be allowed to be outside without a mask, unless they are in. a crowd.

The recommendation from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) further states that vaccinated people can eat, walk or attend small outdoor social gatherings without wearing a mask.

“Instead, we continue to recommend wearing a mask in activities and in high-traffic places, such as stadiums or concerts,” said the CDC director, Rochelle Walensky.

The agency stressed that this relaxation of the guidelines only applies to people who have received both doses and who have gained immunity two weeks after the second injection.

In the United States, more than half of adults have already received at least one of two doses of vaccines that require two inoculations. However, the initial enthusiasm for getting the vaccine has languished, but COVID-19 cases are on the decline.

The CDC began recommending that all Americans – including the healthy population – wear masks in early April 2020.

However, the rules vary by state. In this sense, each local administration must adapt its regulations according to these new recommendations.

“It’s the return of freedom,” said the Dr. Mike Saag, infectious disease expert from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, who celebrated the change. “It’s the return of being able to resume normal activities. We are not there yet, but we are on the exit ramp. And it is something beautiful ”.

More people need to be vaccinated and concerns remain about variants and other possible changes in the epidemic. But Saag said the new guidelines were a reasonable gain after the development and distribution of effective vaccines, and some 140 million Americans have stepped up to get vaccinated.

Dr. Babak Javid, medical scientist at the University of California at San Francisco, said that The new CDC guidelines are reasonable: “In the vast majority of outdoor environments, the risk of transmission is low.”

Javid has been in favor of the outdoor mask requirements because he believes they increase the use of indoor masks, but said Americans can understand the relative risks and make good decisions.

“The main thing is to make sure that people wear masks indoors “when they are in public spaces, Indian. And he added: “I look forward to an existence without masks.”

Currently, the consensus of experts believes that Covid-19 contagion mainly occurs through the air through droplets of saliva that remain in suspension when a person coughs or sneezes, but it can also be emitted by speaking, shouting or singing.

For this reason, being in an enclosed space is more risky if there is no adequate ventilation.

On the other hand, the air circulates outside and the risk that a person breathes a concentration of virus is less, for example if passing next to an infected person.

There are several studies which support this thesis and which show that the vast majority of infections occur when a person comes into contact with an infected person in an enclosed space.

The government said on Monday it would ship up to 60 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine overseas, after critics accused Washington of “hoarding” the vaccine developed by the UK, which is not licensed in the country and is unlikely to be marketed. vaccinate Americans.

With information from AFP and AP

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