Another Covid-19 outbreak is preventable, say top health officials. Here’s what could fuel or reduce another spike

Another Covid-19 outbreak is preventable, say top health officials. Here’s what could fuel or reduce another spike

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“We saw cases and hospital admissions move from historic declines to stagnation, to increases,” said CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky, during a Covid-19 briefing at the White House on Friday. “And we know from previous outbreaks that if we don’t get things under control now, there is real potential for the epidemic curve to rise again.”

“I know people are tired,” said Walensky during the interview. “We are just asking people to wait a little longer in terms of masks and mitigation strategies so that we can vaccinate most people.”

So far, about 15.1% of the US population has been fully vaccinated – meaning that there are not yet enough protected Americans to suppress the spread of the virus.
What can help fight another Covid-19 outbreak, according to experts, are the measures that have proven to work: face masks, social distance, avoiding crowds and washing your hands regularly.
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A sign requiring face masks and Covid-19 protocols at a restaurant in Plymouth, Michigan, on Sunday, March 21, 2021

‘Across the country … the number of cases has increased’

Some state leaders have already expressed concern about recent Covid-19 trends.

On Friday, Vermont authorities reported more than 250 new cases of Covid-19 – the highest one-day total for the state since the pandemic began.

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The increase is likely to be fueled by more people moving now that the climate is warmer and by variants that are circulating, said Dr. Mark Levine, the state’s health commissioner.

“Our efforts to vaccinate Vermonters are a race against what the virus does best: move easily from one person to another,” said Levine. “Across the country, including up and down the east coast, the number of cases has increased.”

Half of the cases in the past two weeks have occurred in people under the age of 30, while the most prominent age group with new cases is between 20 and 29, Levine added.

“We should always continue to be humiliated by the virus,” said Levine. “The reality is that countries like France and Italy are closing in again. The world is not sure now about the virus. It has shown its ability to continue to resurface, and that is just the reality we face.”

High levels of Covid infection now could spell trouble for vaccines later, said the former head of the CDC

Ohio Governor Mike DeWine said on Friday that while the state’s Covid-19 numbers have been dropping for several months, they have now stagnated and officials are concerned that they will start to rise again.

“This is really a critical moment. We have a race going on,” said DeWine. “The race really is between how fast we can vaccinate people and the variant you are seeing in each state.”

In neighboring Michigan, health officials warned earlier this month that the state could be at the beginning of another outbreak, reporting increases in Covid-19 case rates and hospitalization rates.
New Hampshire officials also said on Thursday that the average number of new daily cases for Covid-19 increased last week, as did the state’s positive test rate. And the number of infections among people under 60 is also increasing – especially among teenagers and people in their 20s, officials said.

This increase in cases is likely to continue for a few weeks, as part of what Governor Chris Sununu called a “spring wave”.

Track Covid-19 cases here

Cases of a dangerous variant are increasing

Meanwhile, cases of variant B.1.1.7, first detected in the UK, are on the rise.
So far, the CDC has reported more than 8,300 cases of the variant in the United States – and the agency previously said that the number represents only cases that were found with the help of genetic sequencing.

The CDC continues to broaden its surveillance of variants, Walensky said on Friday, and is looking at this specific variant “very closely”.

“If you look from week to week, 1.1.7 becomes another percentage (of cases in the U.S.) and as the percentage increases, this is a reflection of the ability to become dominant (in the country,” Dr. Anthony Fauci added during Friday’s briefing.

The CDC said earlier that variant B.1.1.7 is likely to become dominant in the United States in late March or early April.

The variant is more contagious and is likely to be associated with more serious illnesses, Fauci said earlier. Recent research suggests that the variant may also be associated with an increased risk of dying from Covid-19.

The three vaccines that received the green light in the United States seem to protect well against this variant.

But experts have warned that if there is an uncontrolled spread of the virus in the United States, it increases the risk that the virus will continue to mutate and that other dangerous variants will emerge – which could pose problems for vaccines.

Experts say facing hesitation will be the next challenge

But because vaccines in the United States are administered at a record pace, many officials say they hope that the United States will soon be able to safely return to an appearance of normalcy.
More than 91 million Americans have received at least one dose of the Covid-19 vaccine – about 27.6% of the population – and more than 50 million are fully vaccinated, according to CDC data.

And those numbers are likely to continue to skyrocket as states continue to expand eligibility for the vaccine and allow more residents to get the vaccine.

Vaccine eligibility in the USA

Some experts fear that the next challenge is not a small supply of vaccine – but to be able to vaccinate enough people.

Only 2 states did not disclose when they plan to start vaccinating all people aged 16 and over

“We have a lot of vaccines, we will have more next month,” Dr. Jonathan Reiner, a professor of medicine at George Washington University, told CNN on Saturday. “The challenge is to put the shots on the guns and then convince the hesitant to make the shots.”

That challenge could arise in the next four to six weeks, Lori Tremmel Freeman, CEO of the National Association of County and City Health Officials, told CNN last week.

“We will get to the point very quickly where we are saying, ‘OK, now we are in the really difficult phase when we are targeting people who are not so willing to get the vaccine,'” she said. .

To combat misinformation and hesitation, state leaders across the country announced partnerships with local organizations and churches and visited vaccination sites to get the message across: vaccines are the way out.

“This is how we ended this pandemic,” Minnesota Governor Tim Walz said at the end of last week. “Gun vaccines are how we beat this thing.”

In Georgia, where officials said earlier this month that they were seeing vaccine hesitation among white Republicans, Governor Brian Kemp announced on Friday that he had received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine and said he was “thrilled to roll up his sleeves” and receive an injection.

CNN’s Heather Law, Jamiel Lynch and Jacqueline Howard contributed to this report.

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