Lila Blanks holds the coffin of her husband, Gregory Blanks, 50, who died of coronavirus (COVID-19), before his funeral in San Felipe, Texas, USA, on January 26, 2021.
Callaghan O’Hare | Reuters
The United States began 2021 with the deadliest month of the coronavirus pandemic to date.
The death toll in January has already exceeded the previous record number of fatalities set in December, when more than 77,400 people died from Covid-19 in the United States, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. The pandemic has claimed more than 79,200 lives so far this month, according to the data.
In the past seven days, the country has reported an average of more than 3,300 Covid-19 deaths every day, an increase of 12% compared to a week ago, according to Hopkins data.
There is hope that the death toll will decrease in the coming weeks. The number of new daily cases reported in the US, which epidemiologists use as an important indicator of whether the outbreak is growing or decreasing, has been steadily declining in recent days, as the increase driven by interstate travel and holiday celebrations appears to decrease. .
The US reported about 146,600 new cases on Tuesday, reducing the seven-day average of new cases to just over 166,300 and about 17% compared to a week ago, according to Hopkins data.
The number of people currently hospitalized with Covid-19 in the United States is also decreasing, although it remains worryingly high. More than 108,900 people were hospitalized with the disease as of Tuesday, according to data compiled by the COVID Tracking Project, created by journalists from The Atlantic. This is off the peak of more than 130,000 hospitalized patients reported earlier this month.
But the potential spread in the United States of new, more contagious strains of the virus, combined with a slower-than-expected distribution of vaccines, threatens to reverse the progress made in fighting the outbreak.
The B.1.1.7 strain of the virus, which was first discovered in the United Kingdom and became the dominant strain there, has been found in several states in the United States. Epidemiologists say the strain appears to spread more easily. British officials said it could also be more lethal.
On Monday, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention reported that 293 cases associated with this strain of the virus were found in the United States, mainly in Florida and California.
And earlier this week, the Minnesota Department of Health said it confirmed the first known case in the United States of another strain of the virus that was originally discovered in Brazil. Another so-called concern variant, called 501Y.V2 or B.1.351, depending on the epidemiologist, was first discovered in South Africa and is worrying scientists because vaccines and drugs appear to be less effective against this strain. No cases associated with this strain have yet been discovered in the US
In an effort to stem the spread of the virus and especially the import of new strains, President Joe Biden earlier this week banned most non-US citizens traveling from South Africa to enter the United States and extended travel restrictions to Europe, the United Kingdom and Brazil.
The president painted a bleak picture of the outbreak, saying on Monday that the United States “will see somewhere between 600,000 to 660,000 deaths before we start to turn the corner in an important way.”
While encouraging people to wear masks and follow public health measures, such as social detachment, Biden is working to accelerate the implementation of Covid-19 vaccines, blaming the initially slow pace of the Trump administration. On Monday, he said the United States could exceed 1.5 million vaccinations a day, compared to its previously predicted pace of 1 million a day, which has already been almost met by the last government.
“Time is of the essence,” he said earlier this week. “We are trying to get a minimum of 100 million vaccines in 100 days and move in the direction that we will be well beyond that in the next 100 days, so that we can reach the point where we will achieve collective immunity in a country of more than 300 million. people. “
On Tuesday, he said the government is working to buy another 200 million doses of vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna, bringing the US supply from 400 million doses to 600 million, although that will not increase the pace of vaccines anytime soon. . He also said that the government will increase the number of doses sent to the states each week by about 20%. Some states have said they have the capacity to vaccinate more people, but are limited by supply.