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The campaign to vaccinate Americans against the coronavirus is gathering momentum and new recorded cases have fallen to their lowest level in three months, but officials fear the loud Super Bowl celebrations could fuel new outbreaks.
More than 4 million additional vaccinations were reported over the weekend, a clip significantly faster than in previous days, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Almost one in 10 Americans has now received at least one injection. But only 2.9% of the US population has been fully vaccinated, a far cry from the 70% or more that experts say must be vaccinated to beat the epidemic.
Newly confirmed infections fell to an average of 117,000 per day, the lowest point since early November. This is a steep drop from the peak of almost 250,000 per day in early January.
The number of Americans hospitalized with COVID-19 has also dropped sharply to around 81,000, from more than 130,000 last month.
Health officials say the drop in hospitalizations and new cases most likely reflects an easing of the surge that has been fueled by the holiday gatherings, and perhaps better adherence to safety precautions.
The drop in new cases comes as fewer tests for the virus are being reported. But experts say the drop in cases is real. It is more pronounced than the apparent slowdown in testing, and there are other encouraging signs.
“We are seeing a real decline because it has been sustained over time and is correlated with a decrease in hospitalizations,” said Dr. Amesh Adalja, infectious disease specialist at Johns Hopkins University. “This tells you that there seems to be something going on.”
The question, he said, is whether the lower numbers can be sustained as new variants of the virus take hold in the United States. President Joe Biden has announced plans to spend billions to increase rapid testing by the summer.
Deaths from COVID-19 in the United States are still near their all-time highs, at an average of about 3,160 per day, down about 200 since mid-January. The overall death toll has eclipsed 460,000.
Federal officials are warning states not to ease restrictions on dining out and other social activities.
“We have not yet brought this pandemic under control,” CDC chief Dr. Rochelle Walensky said on Monday.
The sight of fans, often without masks, celebrating the Super Bowl on the streets, in sports bars and on game-watching nights has raised concerns about further outbreaks.
“This is not how we should be celebrating the Super Bowl,” tweeted St. Petersburg, Fla., Mayor Rick Kriseman after a no-mask party hosted by rapper Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson in a hangar in the city’s airport, not far from where the Tampa Bay Buccaneers won the title.
“It’s neither safe nor smart. This is stupid. We’re going to be looking at it very closely, and it can end up costing someone a lot more than 50 cents.
Police in Charleston, South Carolina, cited nearly 50 people for not wearing masks in public during Sunday’s game.
Richard Medina of Los Angeles attended a friend’s backyard game on Sunday, although he knows the number of cases in Southern California remains high.
“It was outside, and I felt like it was going to be pretty cold,” said Medina, who has spent most of the year in isolation with a roommate who hates sports. He enjoyed the escape but decided to leave after a while.
“More people started showing up later, and it was like the more people drank the more they started to get sloppy on masks and keep their distance,” he says.
Matt Reischling of Petaluma, Calif., Said after careful consideration of the security of the situation, he attended a small gathering of about six people with the family of a friend who had been vaccinated nearby. of San Francisco.
It was his first meeting with more than one person in several months.
“It was a mental health issue for me to just get out… of town and visually look at different things, talk with different people, regardless of the potential risk.
He felt elated seeing the kids being active and the family dog barking as they fry wings in the backyard.
“I feel very excited about the visit and need more of these,” he said, “so in the end it’s totally worth it.”
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Associated Press editors Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, Andrew Dalton, and Jeffrey Collins contributed to this story.
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