More than three months after the US vaccination campaign began, many of the numbers paint an increasingly encouraging picture, with 70% of Americans 65 and older receiving at least one dose of the vaccine and COVID-19 deaths falling. below 1,000 a day on average during the first time since November.
In addition, dozens of states have launched open vaccines for all adults or are planning to do so in a matter of weeks. And the White House said 27 million doses of the one- and two-dose vaccines will be distributed next week, more than three times the number when President Joe Biden took office two months ago.
Still, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government’s leading infectious disease expert, said on Wednesday that he is not ready to declare victory.
“I am often asked: are we around the corner?” Fauci said at a meeting at the White House. “My answer is really more like we are around the corner. Whether or not we will turn that corner is yet to be seen. ”
What is making Fauci hesitate, he said, is that the new cases remain at a stubbornly high level, at more than 50,000 a day. The United States surpassed 30 million confirmed cases on Wednesday, according to data collected by Johns Hopkins University. The death toll now stands at over 545,000.
However, the outlook in the United States contrasts sharply with the deteriorating situation in places like Brazil, which reported more than 3,000 COVID-19 deaths in a single day for the first time on Tuesday, and across Europe, where another wave of infections is leading to new blockages.
The darkness in Europe is exacerbated because the launch of the vaccine on the continent has been delayed by delays in production and questions about the safety and effectiveness of the injection of AstraZeneca.
Public health experts in the United States are taking every opportunity to warn that relaxing social detachment and other preventive measures can easily lead to another outbreak.
Dr. Eric Topol, head of the Scripps Research Translational Institute, sees red flags in states raising mask orders, air travel roaring back and spring break crowds partying out of control in Florida.
“We are getting closer to the exit ramp,” said Topol. “All we are doing with the reopenings is to jeopardize our chance to achieve, finally, for the first time in the American pandemic, containment of the virus.”
Across the country, there are unmistakable signs of progress.
More than 43% of Americans aged 65 and over – the most vulnerable age group, accounting for a large part of the country’s more than 540,000 deaths from coronavirus – have been fully vaccinated, according to the CDC. The number of older adults who appear in emergency rooms with COVID-19 has decreased significantly. Vaccinations in general have increased to 2.5 million to 3 million injections per day.
US deaths per day from COVID-19 fell to an average of 940, down from a historical record of more than 3,400 in mid-January.
Minnesota health officials on Monday reported no further deaths from COVID-19 for the first time in almost a year. And in New Orleans, the Touro Infirmary hospital was not treating a single case for the first time since March 2020.
And Fauci cited two recent studies showing insignificant levels of coronavirus infections among fully vaccinated health workers in Texas and California.
“I emphasize how we need to hold out a little longer,” said Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, on Wednesday. That’s because “the first data is really encouraging”.
Across the country, new cases and the number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 have plummeted in the past two months, although Walensky remains concerned that this progress appears to have stalled in recent weeks. New cases are reaching more than 53,000 a day on average, below the peak of 250,000 in early January.
This is uncomfortably close to the levels seen during last summer’s COVID-19 wave.
Biden has been pushing for states to make all adults eligible to be vaccinated by May 1. At least half a dozen states, including Texas, Arizona and Georgia, are opening vaccinations for everyone over the age of 16. At least 20 other states have pledged to do so in the coming weeks.
Microsoft, which employs more than 50,000 people at its global headquarters in the Seattle suburb, said it will begin bringing workers back on March 29 and will reopen facilities that have been closed for nearly a year.
The 80,000 city officials in New York City, who worked remotely during the pandemic, will return to their offices on May 3.
Still, experts see cause for concern as more Americans begin to travel and socialize again.
The number of daily travelers to US airports has consistently exceeded 1 million in the past week and a half during spring break at many colleges.
In addition, states like Michigan and New Jersey are seeing increasing cases.
National numbers are an imperfect indicator. The favorable downward trend in some states may conceal an increase in the number of cases in others, particularly in smaller ones, said Ali Mokdad, a professor of health metrics at the University of Washington in Seattle.
And the most contagious variant that originated in Britain has now been identified in almost every state, he said.
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AP journalists Terry Tang and Suman Naishadham contributed from Phoenix. Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar contributed from Washington.