ÇASHINGTON – Biden government officials on Friday warned of a “very worrying” increase in Covid-19 cases this week, urging Americans not to let their guard down, despite an ongoing vaccination campaign and case rates that are substantially lower than their peak last month.
“We can end the virus, but clearly the virus did not end with us,” said Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, during a press conference at the White House. “I know that people are tired and want to return to life, to normal, but we are not there yet”.
The change in tone of Walensky occurs after a slight but notable increase in the reported cases of Covid-19. Health officials have reported more than 70,000 cases in each of the past three days, the first increase after about seven weeks of a drop in the number of cases.
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Current totals are dramatically lower than those of mid-January, when the country recorded more than 250,000 per day. But they are still high – more than double the initial 2020 outbreak, which saw about 30,000 daily cases in April, and an increase in July, which saw about 65,000.
“We at CDC consider this to be a very worrying change in trajectory,” said Walensky. “The most recent seven-day average of cases, approximately 66,350, is higher than the average I shared with you on Wednesday. In fact, cases have increased in the past three days compared to the previous week. “
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Walensky sounded the alarm as the United States continues to administer about 1.3 million doses of vaccine per day, according to data from the CDC. The country has distributed more than 68 million doses of vaccine and about 14% of Americans have received at least one dose of the two-dose vaccine regimen.
Most Americans, however, are unlikely to be vaccinated for months, leaving large sections of the population susceptible to the virus, which has already resulted in more than 500,000 deaths in the United States.
Authorities also warned that new variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes Covid-19, could delay the response to the U.S. pandemic if Americans let their guard down. Anthony Fauci, the government researcher and chief medical advisor for the response to the Biden pandemic, warned that the encouraging news in February could be erased if the case count continues at the current level rather than falling further.
“If we reach the level of 70,000, we will be in that very precarious position that we were in before the sudden increase in the fall,” he said. “We don’t want to be people always looking at the dark side of things, but you want to be realistic.”
The White House briefing came when a Food and Drug Administration committee considered whether to recommend authorization for a new single-dose vaccine developed by Johnson & Johnson.
“More vaccine is on the way,” said Walensky. “We are on the verge of having another vaccine in our toolbox.”
That audience, however, also brought a warning of its own, in particular regarding the presence of potentially more transmissible new variants of the virus, in particular three discoveries for the first time in Brazil, South Africa and the United Kingdom.
“We have to assume, in the absence of other information, that these variants are likely to exist across the United States,” said Adam MacNeil, an epidemiologist at the CDC.
The United States, he added, is currently “far” from having collective immunity.
Despite concerns about the new variants, Fauci urged Americans to be vaccinated as soon as possible, while highlighting ongoing trials by drug maker Moderna to determine whether a potential “booster” injection could help specifically protect against the South African variant.
“Get vaccinated,” said Fauci. “The vaccine that is available to you – get that vaccine”.
Matthew Herper contributed reporting.