Paramedics arrive with a patient with Covid-19 in the emergency department of Sharp Memorial Hospital in San Diego, California.
Bing Guan | Bloomberg | Getty Images
New cases of Covid-19 are once again on the rise in more than half of the United States, as authorities rush to vaccinate more people before highly contagious variants become prevalent in the country.
On Sunday, the seven-day average of new cases increased by 5% or more in 27 states, according to a CNBC analysis of data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. In the United States, the country recorded an average of 54,308 new cases per day last week – an increase of 1% over the previous week, after months of rapid decline in the number of cases, according to the data.
Even with the US accelerating the pace of vaccinations, giving about 2.5 million vaccines a day, some health officials have warned that the country remains in a precarious situation. The lifting of restrictions in many states and the spread of more contagious variants in the U.S. threatens to undo the progress of the country, which has seen cases, hospitalizations and deaths drop dramatically since the peak earlier this year.
‘Serious threat’
The lifting of restrictions is a “serious threat to the progress we have made,” Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told reporters at a news conference on Monday. Walensky said he is concerned about an inevitable increase in cases. “We are at a critical point in this pandemic, a fork in the road.”
New daily deaths continue to decline, probably helped by prioritizing vaccination for the elderly and people with comorbidities who are more likely to die from Covid-19. About 68.8% of people aged 65 and older received at least one vaccine injection by Sunday, according to the CDC. In total, more than 124.4 million doses have been administered, but most of them are for two-dose vaccines.
As optimism about the steady increase in vaccines increases, many states have begun to reduce restrictions on business and meetings, despite warnings from the CDC not to do so. Although some states, like New Jersey, are starting to consider delaying the reopening as cases start to escalate.
The White House Chief Medical Adviser, Dr. Anthony Fauci, urged states last week not to declare victory prematurely.
Fauci said he was concerned about a number of states and cities that are backing down on public health measures and withdrawing mask prescriptions.
“So it is unfortunate, but not surprising to me, that you are seeing increases in the number of cases per day in areas – cities, states or regions – although vaccines are being distributed at a very good rate from 2 (millions) to 3 million a day, “said Fauci on Friday. “This could be overcome if certain areas retreated prematurely in the mitigation and public health measures that we are all talking about.”
B.1.1.7 in Michigan
Adding to the urgency of the need to vaccinate people quickly is the growing threat of new variants, which appear to have already caused serious outbreaks in much of Europe and other parts of the world. The CDC projected that the most contagious and potentially deadliest variant B.1.1.7, which was discovered in the UK, could become the dominant strain in the U.S. by the end of the month.
Some health officials said variant B.1.1.7 may be what is behind some particularly worrying outbreaks seen in several states, including Michigan, where cases have increased dramatically in the past few days. According to data from Johns Hopkins, Michigan is reporting an average of almost 3,000 new cases per day, an increase of about 50% over the previous week.
The increase in the number of cases comes after the state allowed restaurants to reopen for indoor meals on February 1, put pressure on schools to offer face-to-face education until March 1, and eased restrictions on restaurants and meetings earlier this month. The recent increase there even led Fauci recently to plead with Democratic governor Gretchen Whitmer to “wait a little” at the reopening.
Along with easing restrictions, Michigan also has the second highest B.1.1.7 case count of any state in the country, behind Florida. The state has 616 cases of the variant, according to the CDC, although there are likely to be many more that have yet to be confirmed, meaning that the strain may be causing the outbreak there.