Washington – Dr. Anthony Fauci, chief medical advisor to President Biden, said on Sunday that the number of vaccine doses available would increase dramatically in the coming weeks after federal approval for a third coronavirus vaccine.
“We need to step back gradually [on restrictions] as we vaccinate more people, and this is happening every day, more and more people, and particularly as we receive more doses, which will be drastically increased as we enter in April and May, “said Fauci in” Face the Nation “of reduce mitigation measures.
The Food and Drug Administration has already authorized three COVID-19 vaccines for emergency use, with the most recent, the single dose from Johnson & Johnson, getting the green light last week.
The US is now administering at least 2 million injections per day and 87.9 million doses have been administered, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Biden predicted that by the end of May, there will be enough vaccine to cover all adults, while Fauci said high school students are likely to be able to receive vaccines by autumn and those in elementary school in the first quarter of 2022.
Fauci said that as the supply of the vaccine increases, the federal government “will have to make a great effort to place it in the arms of the people”.
“But at this point, we will be doing much, much better,” he said. “We are going to have community vaccine centers, vaccines in pharmacies”.
Although the number of new coronavirus cases in the United States has declined dramatically in recent weeks, public health officials warn that the country has reached a level of 60,000 to 70,000 new infections per day, which Fauci said was “an unacceptable level”.
This leveling occurs when some states like Texas and Mississippi began to suspend masking mandates and loosen other restrictions designed to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus against the guidance of federal public health officials.
Fauci said the nation is “going in the right direction”, but stressed that mitigation measures must be reversed slowly and carefully as more Americans are vaccinated.
“Don’t turn this switch on and off because it would be really risky to have another peak again, which we don’t want to happen because we are stagnating at a very high level,” he said.
Although the number of Americans who received their vaccines continues to grow, the Biden government has not yet released guidelines on activities for those who have been fully vaccinated.
But Fauci said that these CDC guidelines are expected to come out “soon” in the next few days.
“Every day that we keep control of things is going to get better and better, because now we are putting 2 million vaccines in the arms of individuals every day, and with the passing of days and weeks, you have more and more protection , not only from individuals, but from the community, “he said.” So, we are going in the right direction. We just need to take it a little longer. “