Outlook for COVID-19 improves in US: As vaccination increases, deaths decrease

Three months after the start of the vaccination campaign in the United States, many figures paint an encouraging picture, as 70% of the population over 65 has received at least one dose of the vaccine and the daily average of deaths has fallen below 1,000 for the first time since November.

Dozens of states have offered vaccines to all adults or plan to do so in a few weeks. Yes The White House said next week it would distribute 27 million one- and two-dose vaccines., more than triple the number when President Joe Biden took office two months ago.

Yet Dr Anthony Fauci, the government’s leading infectious disease specialist, said on Wednesday he was still unwilling to declare victory.

“They often ask me if we are turning the corner”Fauci said at a White House press conference. “My answer is that we are probably in the area. It remains to be seen whether we will fold it or not. “

Fauci relies on the fact that the number of new infections remains at a high level, more than 50,000 per day. The United States surpassed 30 million confirmed cases on Wednesday, according to data collected by Johns Hopkins University. The current death toll exceeds 545,000.

However, the outlook in the United States stands in stark contrast to the deteriorating situation in places like Brazil, which reported more than 3,000 COVID-19 deaths in a single day for the first time on Tuesday, or in Europe, where a new wave of contagions led to new quarantines.

The situation in Europe worsened as production delays and doubts about the safety and efficacy of the AstraZeneca vaccine slowed down the vaccination campaign.

Public health experts in the United States insist that easing preventative measures such as social distancing could easily start a new wave.

Dr Eric Topol, director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute, sees red flags in the fact that some states have lifted the requirement to use masks, in the dramatic increase in the number of people who travel by air and in the crowd. of vacationers partying out of control in Florida.

“We are approaching the exit ramp”, Topol commented. “What we’re doing with all of these reopenings is jeopardizing our opportunity to, finally and for the first time since the onset of the pandemic, to contain the virus.”

Across the country, there are clear signs of progress.

More than 43% of Americans 65 and older, the most vulnerable age group, which accounts for a large portion of the country’s more than 540,000 coronavirus deaths, have been fully immunized., According to the CDC. The number of older adults visiting emergency rooms with COVID-19 has dropped significantly. Vaccines in general have gone from 2.5 to 3 million injections per day.

Daily deaths in the United States from COVID-19 have fallen to an average of 940, from an all-time high of over 3,400 in mid-January.

Minnesota health officials reported on Monday that there were no new deaths from COVID-19 for the first time in nearly a year.. And in New Orleans, the Touro Infirmary Hospital has not treated a single case for the first time since March 2020.

And Fauci cited two recent studies showing negligible levels of coronavirus infections among fully vaccinated healthcare workers in Texas and California.

“I emphasize that we have to hold out a little longer”Dr Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Wednesday. This is because “the first data is really encouraging.”

On a national level, new cases and the number of people hospitalized for COVID-19 have fallen in the past two months, although Walensky remains concerned that this progress appears to have stagnated over the past two weeks. New cases are running at more than 53,000 a day on average, down from the peak of a quarter of a million in early January.

This is uncomfortably close to the levels seen during the COVID-19 wave last summer.

Biden pushed for states to vaccinate all adults by May 1. At least half a dozen states, including Texas, Arizona, and Georgia, are opening vaccines to all people 16 and older. At least 20 other states have pledged to do so. so in the next few weeks.

Microsoft, which employs more than 50,000 people at its global headquarters in the Seattle suburbs, said it would start bringing workers back on March 29 and reopen facilities that had been closed for nearly a year.

The 80,000 New York city workers, who worked remotely during the pandemic, will return to their offices from May 3.

Still, experts see cause for concern as more Americans begin to travel and socialize again.

The number of commuters at US airports has consistently exceeded one million over the past week and a half in the midst of spring break at many colleges.

Additionally, states like Michigan and New Jersey are seeing an increase in cases.

National figures are an imperfect indicator. The favorable downtrend in some states may mask an increase in the number of cases in others, especially smaller ones, said Ali Mokdad, professor of health metrics science at the University of Washington in Seattle. .

And the most contagious variant originating in Britain has now been identified in almost every state, he said.

(With AP information)

KEEP READING: