Newsman: Covid-19 cases in the United States are rising again after several weeks at a plateau. Indeed it is the clearest warning sign yet that the country could face another “avoidable” surge, the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday. However, about 49 million Americans are now fully vaccinated, and about 1 in 3 has received at least one dose. But White House officials are highlighting the fact that 71% of seniors have received one shot, because that age group accounts for roughly 80% of the Covid deaths up to this point.
The uptick comes at a critical time, when Americans are exhausted and desperate for a return to normalcy.CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said at a media briefing that the most recent seven-day average of Covid-19 cases was about 57,000 cases per day, an increase of 7 percent from the previous week.
“We know from prior surges that if we don’t control things now, there is a real potential for the epidemic curve to soar again,” she said, adding that she remains “deeply concerned” about the trends.
The immediate challenge for Walensky and other public health officials now is to convince Americans weary of pandemic protocols to hold on just a little longer with masks and physical distancing as vaccinations are administered at an average clip of 2.5 million per day. Still, just 14 percent of the U.S. population is fully vaccinated, according to the CDC.
The urgent pleas from public health officials come as a growing number of states have begun to relax mitigation strategies.
Arizona is the latest state to announce it’s lifting mask mandates and is allowing bars and restaurants to reopen fully — joining Iowa, Mississippi, Montana, North Dakota and Texas.
As of Friday afternoon, many North Carolina businesses, including retail stores, were permitted to reopen fully. Connecticut and Maryland, too, have announced plans to roll back mitigation efforts.
In a statement to NBC News, Walensky acknowledged her team is “competing against messages from states that are pulling back public health measures, like mask-wearing requirements and relaxing limits on in-person dining in restaurants and bars.”
“We’re also communicating with a fatigued public,” she said following Friday’s briefing in which she urged people to stay the course.
“We can turn this around, but it will take all of us working together.”
It seems, however, that many people are rejecting the idea. Spring break hot spots are crowded. Many bars and restaurants are filled to capacity.
“Clearly, it’s not working,” said Dr. Leana Wen, an emergency physician and a former health commissioner of Baltimore. “It doesn’t work if we tell them, ‘don’t travel, don’t party,’ because they’re doing it.”
Wen said the best strategy is to communicate ways to minimize, not necessarily eliminate, risk.
Forcing spring breakers off beaches or out of other outdoor venues may have the unintended impact of driving such gatherings underground, to more dangerous situations.
“Now instead of gathering in outdoor bars, they’re going to be in somebody’s hotel room with 10 people to a room that’s not well ventilated,” Wen said.
The Biden administration announced new steps on Friday to meet the President’s new goal of 200 million shots by his 100th day in office. Jeff Zients, the White House Covid-19 response coordinator, said maintaining the current pace of 2.5 million vaccinations per day for the next five weeks will be the equivalent of vaccinating a sellout crowd at Yankee Stadium 50 times a day.
With the increase in vaccine supply, Zients affirmed Friday there will be enough vaccine doses for every adult in the US by the end of May and said the three manufacturers who have received emergency use authorization for their vaccines in the US — Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson — “are setting and hitting targets.”
While increasing the number of available doses at pharmacies and community vaccination sites, the administration announced three new federally run mass vaccination sites on Friday in Boston, Norfolk, Virginia, and Newark, New Jersey. At the President’s urging, Zients also noted that most states and the District of Columbia have now outlined their plans to make all Americans eligible for the vaccine by May 1.
“It’s clear there is a case for optimism, but there is not a case for relaxation,” Zients said. “This is not the time to let down our guard.”
