The effort to vaccinate Americans against coronavirus is picking up speed and newly registered cases have dropped to their lowest level in three months, but officials fear that the strident Super Bowl celebrations could fuel new outbreaks.
More than 4 million more 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 received at least one shot. But only 2.9% of the United States’ population has been fully vaccinated, a far cry from the 70% or more that experts say must be inoculated to beat the outbreak.
Recently confirmed infections have dropped to an average of 117,000 per day, the lowest point since the beginning of November. This is a sharp drop from the peak of almost 250,000 a day in early January.
The number of Americans in the hospital with COVID-19 has also dropped dramatically to about 81,000, from more than 130,000 last month.
Health officials say the decline in hospitalizations and new cases likely reflects a decrease in the increase that was fueled by holidays and perhaps better adherence to safety precautions.
The drop in new cases occurs as fewer tests for the virus are being reported. But experts say the decline in cases is real. It is more pronounced than the apparent slowdown in testing and is accompanied by other encouraging signs.
“We are seeing a real decline because it has been sustained over time and is related to decreasing hospitalizations,” said Dr. Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease specialist at Johns Hopkins University. “It shows 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 install themselves in the United States. President Joe Biden announced plans to spend billions to increase rapid testing by the summer.
COVID-19 deaths in the United States are still close to its historic high, at an average of about 3,160 per day, a drop of about 200 since mid-January. The total death toll exceeded 460,000.
Federal officials are warning states not to relax restrictions on dining out and other social activities.
“We still need to control this pandemic,” said Dr. Rochelle Walensky, head of the CDC, on Monday.
The sight of fans, many without masks, celebrating the Super Bowl on the streets, in sports bars and at parties to watch games sparked concerns about new outbreaks.
“This is not how we should celebrate the Super Bowl,” tweeted St. Petersburg, Florida Mayor Rick Kriseman, after a maskless party hosted by Rapper Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson in a hangar at the city’s airport, not far away where Tampa Bay Buccaneers won the title.
“It is not safe or smart. It’s stupid. Let’s take a look at this and it could end up costing someone a lot more than 50 cents. “
Police in Charleston, South Carolina, issued quotes to nearly 50 people for not wearing masks in public during Sunday’s game.
Richard Medina, from Los Angeles, attended a friend’s backyard game party on Sunday, although he knew that the number of cases in Southern California remains high.
“It was outdoors and it looked like it was going to be pretty cold,” said Medina, who spent most of last year alone with a roommate who hates sports. He liked the escape, but decided to leave after a while.
“More people started showing up later and it seemed like the more people drank, the more they started to get sloppy with the masks and keep their distance,” he said.
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Associated Press writer Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, Andrew Dalton and Jeffrey Collins contributed to this story.