New director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Rochelle Walensky, warned on Sunday that the United States is likely to see “dark weeks ahead” with the death toll from the potentially coronavirus set to reach half a million in mid-February.
On CBS’s “Face the Nation” program on Sunday, Walensky, head of infectious diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital, said that despite nearly 4,000 deaths a day, the country is still not seeing the real ramifications of vacation travel and dates. .
On Monday, the United States recorded nearly 24 million coronavirus cases and more than 397,800 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
COVID-19 VACCINE ADMINISTERED TO INELIGIBLE PERSONS IN THIS STATE
Walensky also noted that, in addition to the overwhelming number of patients with COVID-19, there are thousands of additional cases involving survivors of the coronavirus who are dealing with post-disease symptoms, or so-called “long-haulers”.
National Guard members assist in processing COVID-19 deaths and place them in temporary storage at the LA County Medical Examiner-Coroner Office in Los Angeles on January 12, 2021.
(LA County Medical Examiner-Coroner Department via AP, Archives)
President-elect Joe Biden said his government plans to vaccinate 100 million people in his first 100 days in office, which Dr. Anthony Fauci later said was “an absolutely doable thing”. However, some question whether production will be high enough to meet supply demand.
In New York, for example, Governor Andrew Cuomo said that the state’s distribution had been cut last week from 300,000 to 250,000, and it occurred at a time when the region began to expand distribution.
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And Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers said the Trump administration’s pledge to ship the rest of the federal stock failed when they found it didn’t exist.
“I was told by the vice president, a couple [of] days ago, and the health services secretary that they are opening the gates, we will send you the rest of what has been stored, “he said, according to the Associated Press.” I think they may have told the truth because it is zero. “
Walensky said the Biden government will “resolve all bottlenecks” in vaccine production.
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According to the CDC, the country distributed 31.1 million doses of the vaccine, but only 12.2 million were administered. The Trump administration recently advised states to expand distribution to include people aged 65 and over, in addition to the elderly and healthcare professionals, but not all regions acted quickly.