Expect 500,000 Covid-19 deaths by mid-February, new CDC director says



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In less than a year, Covid-19 has killed nearly 400,000 Americans.

And within the next month, 100,000 more lives could be lost to the disease, said the new director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“By mid-February, we predict half a million deaths in this country,” Dr. Rochelle Walensky told CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday.

“This does not apply to the tens of thousands of people who live with an as yet uncharacterized syndrome after their recovery,” said Walensky, who was chief infectious disease officer at Massachusetts General Hospital before President-elect Joe Biden chose her. lead the CDC.

Some people who have had Covid-19 have suffered symptoms months after testing positive.

“And we still haven’t seen the ramifications of what happened from the vacation trip, the vacation gathering, in terms of the high rates of hospitalizations and deaths afterwards,” Walensky said.

“I think we still have a few dark weeks to come.”

100 million doses in 100 days: Walensky said on Sunday that the Biden administration would tackle “bottlenecks” in the distribution of the Covid-19 vaccine and meet its goal of delivering 100 million doses in 100 days.

“I think there are bottlenecks in different places throughout the system,” Walensky told “Face the Nation”.
“Different states have different challenges – how much is deployed in each state, whether those states have the right staff, whether those states are getting vaccines to pharmacies,” she said. “Our job is to make sure that with the full support of the federal government, we tackle all of these bottlenecks wherever we are, so that we can get the vaccine into people’s arms.”

President-elect Joe Biden has said his goal is to distribute 100 million doses of the vaccine during his first 100 days in office.

“We have looked at it carefully, and are confident that we have enough vaccine for the 100 million doses over the next 100 days,” Walensky said. “It will be a big boost, but we have it in us to do it.”

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