Officials say new COVID-19 surge is preventable: here’s what could fuel or stop another spike

The United States could soon face another outbreak of Covid-19 – one that the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says “is really preventable.”

“We have seen cases and hospital admissions go from historic declines to stagnations, to increases,” CDC director Dr Rochelle Walensky said on Friday at a White House briefing on Covid -19. “And we know from previous surges that if we don’t control things now, there is real potential for the epidemic curve to fly off again.”

“Please take this moment very seriously.”

It’s a plea that has been echoed by health experts across the country, who have urged state leaders to wait a little longer before easing restrictions on Covid-19 and Americans to double measures. security as the country rushes to immunize more people. These actions are especially crucial now that a highly contagious – and potentially more deadly – variant is spreading in the United States, they warned.

Instead, at least a dozen governors – in addition to local leaders – relaxed the measures this month. Spring break crowds filled popular beach destinations and air travel increased.

“I know people are tired,” Walensky said at the briefing. “We’re just asking people to hang on a little longer in terms of masks and mitigation strategies so that we can get the majority of people vaccinated.”

So far, about 15.1% of the U.S. population is fully vaccinated – meaning few Americans are even protected to suppress the spread of the virus.

What can help fight another outbreak of Covid-19, experts say, are the measures that have been proven to work: face masks, social distancing, avoiding crowds and washing your hands regularly.

“Across the country … the number of cases is on the rise”

Some state leaders have already expressed concern over recent trends in Covid-19.

Vermont officials reported more than 250 new cases of Covid-19 on Friday – the highest one-day total for the state since the start of the pandemic.

The increase is likely fueled by more people moving now that the warmer weather is here and by the variants circulating, said Dr Mark Levine, state health commissioner.

“Our efforts to vaccinate the people of Vermont are a race against what the virus does best – move easily from person to person,” Levine said. “Across the country, including along the east coast, the number of cases is on the rise.”

Half of the cases in the past two weeks have been in people under the age of 30, while the largest age group with new cases are those aged 20 to 29, Levine added.

“We should always continue to be humiliated by the virus,” Levine said. “The reality is that countries like France and Italy are on lockdown again. The world is not safe from the virus at this time. It has shown its ability to continue to resurface, and that is precisely the reality we are facing.

Ohio Governor Mike DeWine said on Friday that while the state’s Covid-19 numbers have been declining for several months, they have now leveled off and officials fear it will start to climb again.

“This is really a critical moment. We have a race going, ”DeWine said. “The race is really between how quickly we can vaccinate people and the variant that you see state after state.”

In neighboring Michigan, health officials warned earlier this month that the state could be at the start of another outbreak, reporting rising rates of Covid-19 cases and rates of ‘hospitalization.

New Hampshire officials also said Thursday that the average number of new daily Covid-19 cases increased last week, as did the state’s test positivity rate. And the number of infections in people under the age of 60 is also increasing – especially among teens and people in their twenties, officials said.

This increase in cases will likely continue for a few weeks in what Gov. Chris Sununu has called the “spring push”.

Cases of a dangerous variant climb

Meanwhile, cases of variant B.1.1.7, first spotted in the UK, are on the rise.

So far, the CDC has reported more than 8,300 cases of the variant in the United States – and the agency previously said the number represents only those cases that were found using genetic sequencing.

The CDC continues to step up its monitoring of variants, Walensky said on Friday, and is monitoring this specific variant “very closely.”

“If you look from week to week, 1.1.7 becomes more of a percentage (of US cases) and as the percentage increases, it shows that it has the capacity to become dominant (in the country,” a said Dr Anthony Fauci, added at Friday’s briefing.

The CDC has previously said that variant B.1.1.7 will likely become dominant in the United States by late March or early April.

The variant is more contagious and may possibly be associated with more serious illness, Fauci has previously said. Recent research suggests that the variant may also be associated with a higher risk of dying from Covid-19.

The three vaccines that have been given the green light in the United States appear to protect well against this variant.

But experts have warned that if there was an uncontrolled spread of the virus in the United States, it increased the risk of the virus continuing to mutate and more dangerous variants emerging – which could pose problems for vaccines.

Experts say the next challenge will be to address the reluctance

But with vaccines across the United States being administered at an all-time high, many officials say they hope the United States will soon be able to safely return to some semblance of normalcy.

More than 91 million Americans have received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine – about 27.6% of the population – and more than 50 million are fully vaccinated, according to CDC data.

And those numbers will likely continue to rise rapidly as states continue to expand vaccine eligibility and allow more residents to get vaccinated.

Some experts worry that the challenge ahead is not a vaccine shortage – but getting enough people vaccinated.

“We have a lot of vaccines, we will have more over the next month,” Dr. Jonathan Reiner, professor of medicine at George Washington University, told CNN on Saturday. “The challenge is to embrace the punches and then convince the hesitant to get the punches.”

That challenge could arise over the next four to six weeks, Lori Tremmel Freeman, CEO of the National Association of County and City Health Officials, told CNN last week.

“We will get to the point pretty quickly where we say, ‘OK, now we are in the really difficult phase of this situation where we are at the population that is not so willing to be vaccinated'”, a- she declared. .

To combat misinformation and hesitation, heads of state across the country announced partnerships with local organizations and churches and visited vaccination sites to spread the word: vaccines are the solution.

“This is how we are breaking the back of this pandemic,” Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said late last week. “Vaccines in guns are our way to beat this thing.”

In Georgia, where officials said earlier this month they saw vaccine reluctance among white Republicans, Gov. Brian Kemp announced on Friday that he had received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine and said to himself “Nice to roll up my sleeve” and get vaccinated.