MISSION, Kan. (AP) – With the US vaccination campaign picking up speed and a third formula on the way, states eager to reopen business are easing restrictions on coronavirus, despite warnings from health experts that the outbreak is far from over and which is also changing rapidly could prolong misery.
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McKesson Corporation employees scan a box of Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine while fulfilling an order at its shipping facility in Shepherdsville, Ky., Monday, March 1, 2021. (AP Photo / Timothy D. Easley, Pool)
Massachusetts on Monday made it much easier to get dinner and a show. In Missouri, where individual communities set the rules, the two largest metropolitan areas – St. Louis and Kansas City – are relaxing some measures. The Iowa governor recently lifted mask requirements and limits on the number of people allowed in bars and restaurants, while the city of Lawrence, where the University of Kansas is located, now allows establishments to stay open until midnight.
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A McKesson Corporation employee packs a box of Johnson and Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine in a refrigerator to ship from its Shepherdsville, Ky. Facility, Monday, March 1, 2021. (Photo by AP / Timothy D. Easley , Pool)
Mike Lee, owner of the Trezo Mare Restaurant & Lounge in Kansas City, said he hopes greater access to vaccines, combined with a warmer climate, will improve business.
“I think people are excited to leave this behind and be able to start getting back to their ways of doing things,” said Lee.
The momentum for reopening comes at a time when shipments of COVID-19 vaccines to states are increasing. Nearly 20% of the country’s adults – or more than 50 million people – received at least one dose of the vaccine and 10% were fully inoculated two and a half months in the campaign to extinguish the virus, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention .
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The first box containing Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine goes down the conveyor belt to a transport truck at McKesson’s facility in Shepherdsville, Ky., Monday, March 1, 2021. (Photo by AP / Timothy D. Easley , Pool)
Johnson & Johnson dispatched nearly 4 million doses of its newly authorized COVID-19 vaccine on Sunday night to be delivered to the states for use as of Tuesday. The company will deliver about 16 million more doses by the end of March and a total of 100 million by the end of June.
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Melissa Owens, operations manager at McKesson Corporation, signs the first Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine shipping box at McKesson’s facilities in Shepherdsville, Ky., Monday, March 1, 2021. (AP Photo / Timothy D Easley, Pool)
This adds to the supply that is being distributed by Pfizer and Moderna and should help the country gather enough doses by mid-summer to vaccinate all adults. The White House is encouraging Americans to take the first available dose, regardless of the manufacturer.
In New York City, where the limited number of indoor meals has resumed, officials said the J&J vaccine will help the city inoculate millions of people through the summer, including door-to-door vaccinations for elderly people living at home.
But the efforts come with strong warnings from health officials against reopening too quickly, as worrying variants of the coronavirus spread.
On Monday, the head of the CDC, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, urgently warned state officials and ordinary Americans not to let their guard down, saying she is “really concerned about reports that more states are reversing exact health measures. that we have recommended. “
“I remain deeply concerned about a possible change in the path of the pandemic,” she said. “We can completely lose the ground conquered with so much effort.”
Cases and hospitalizations have plummeted since the end of January, and deaths have also dropped dramatically, but are still at dangerously high levels and have even increased slightly in the past few days.
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Johnson and Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine boxes are shown at McKesson Corporation in Shepherdsville, Ky., Monday, March 1, 2021. (AP Photo / Timothy D. Easley, Pool)
“We cannot settle for 70,000 cases a day and 2,000 deaths daily,” said Walensky.
Overall, the outbreak killed more than half a million Americans.
The vaccine is already contributing to the reduction of serious cases and deaths among older people, and is “rapidly becoming a major contributor” nationally, said Justin Lessler, an infectious disease specialist at Johns Hopkins University, in an email.
“I suspect that we will see him overcome natural infection as the biggest booster of immunity in late spring, most likely in the middle of summer,” said Lessler.
Dr. Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease specialist at Johns Hopkins University, said he believes that states and cities have room for maneuver to ease some restrictions because hospitals are no longer crowded in most communities. But “I really think the masks are likely to need to be kept in place for some time until more of our vulnerable populations are vaccinated,” he said.
“It is important for restaurants that are increasing their ability to remember that we are still in a pandemic and to continue to follow some of these rules,” said Adalja.
The Biden administration wants to see all three vaccines distributed evenly, although it also recognizes that the easy-to-handle J&J vaccine will be used on mobile pop-up sites and places without freezer storage capacity.
States hope that the increase in the supply of vaccines will help to contain new infections.
In Massachusetts, Governor Charlie Baker has raised the restaurant’s capacity limits altogether. Theaters can open at 50% capacity, with a maximum of 500 people. And capacity limits across all companies have been increased to 50%.
Las Vegas on Monday became the latest of the nation’s largest school districts to return children to classrooms. Children from pre-primary to third grade will return two days a week, with other grades to be introduced in early April.
And in California, Governor Gavin Newsom and legislative leaders reached an agreement to put most children back in class by the end of March. According to the agreement announced on Monday, school districts could receive up to $ 6.6 billion if they reopen by March 31.
The USA ranks fourth in the world, behind Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Britain, in the number of doses administered in relation to the population, according to data compiled by the University of Oxford.
President Joe Biden fell far short of his goal of establishing 100 new mass vaccination sites operated by the federal government by the end of February, with only seven functioning.
White House vaccination coordinator Jeff Zients also acknowledged that scheduling vaccination appointments “remains very difficult in many places”. But he said the White House is working with states to improve scheduling systems and is exploring federal support for call centers to make it easier for people to get appointments.
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Webber reported from Fenton, Michigan. Associated Press writers Adam Beam in Sacramento, California; Bryan Anderson in Raleigh, North Carolina; Carla K. Johnson in Seattle; Mark Pratt in Boston; Karen Matthews in New York; and Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar and Zeke Miller in Washington contributed to this report.
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