Newsman: Deaths and hospitalizations are beginning to rise in the US again with New Covid-19 cases. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky shared her latest findings that it ‘may just be the start of what experts have for weeks warned about: another surge of covid-19’.
Speaking during the White House Covid-19 briefing Monday morning, Walensky said she was “scared” about where the US is heading, and shared her feeling of “impending doom.”
“I so badly want to be done. I know you all so badly want to be done,” she added. “We are just almost there but not quite yet. And so I’m asking you to just hold on a little longer, to get vaccinated when you can so that all of those people that we all love will still be here when this pandemic ends.”
Now, the pandemic’s trajectory in the US is similar to what some European countries looked like just weeks ago, Walensky said. New lockdowns have now been imposed across that continent as countries like France, Italy and Germany battle another devastating spike in infections. Just this week, doctors in Paris warned their ICUs will likely be overwhelmed by that surge within the next 14 days and hospitals will be forced to choose “which patients get access to the ICUs and which do not in order to save as many lives as possible.”
But the US is not powerless right now, the CDC director said.
“We can change this trajectory,” she added.
After a crippling winter surge, the US saw steep declines in Covid-19 numbers before hitting a plateau just weeks ago — when new infections appeared steady but still stunningly high, with tens of thousands of new cases reported daily.
Experts urged Americans not to get lax with safety measures, warning of another possible Covid-19 surge that could come while many were still not vaccinated.
But state and local leaders across the US eased restrictions — and several did away with mask mandates. Meanwhile, spring break crowds packed popular beach destinations and air travel surged, all while the B.1.1.7 variant — a more contagious and potentially more deadly strain — was spreading across the country.
What that will take, while vaccination numbers climb, will be doubling on safety measures that have proven to work: face masks, social distancing, avoiding crowds and regularly washing hands.
“I’m calling on our elected officials, our faith-based communities, our civic leaders, and our other influencers in communities across the nation, and I’m calling on every single one of you to sound the alarm to carry these messages into your community and your spheres of influence,” Walensky said. “We do not have the luxury of inaction. For the health of our country, we must work together now to prevent a fourth surge.”
The CDC director’s warnings have been echoed by experts across the country for weeks. But at least a dozen governors, citing lowered Covid-19 numbers and ongoing vaccinations, eased Covid-19 restrictions this month, against health officials’ guidance.
A surge that could come just as the country inches closer to a return to normalcy and officials’ nationwide race to get as many Covid-19 vaccine shots into arms as possible.
So far, about 28.6% of the US population has received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine and about 15.8% is fully vaccinated, according to CDC data.
Dr. Anthony Fauci told CNBC on Monday that it is still unknown whether the protection from one dose is long-lasting or strong enough to substitute for the two-dose schedule.
“We don’t know how long that 80% is durable,” he said. “It may drop off a cliff in two weeks or three weeks.”
