Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves said the state had “more patients with Covid in ICU beds at the end of last week than at any other time during this pandemic.”
And he expects “some very large numbers with the spread of the holiday meetings combined with the build-up and tests and reports that may have occurred during the past 10 days.”
After setting a particularly deadly day in New York, Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Monday that there was an increase after the recent social gatherings that took place.
“It is clear that the increase during the holidays has increased the rate of infection and increased the number of people who are now entering hospitals,” said the governor.
In California – where at least two regions no longer have ICU beds – infections continue to increase.
“We are moving towards what we anticipate as a wave at the top of a wave,” Governor Gavin Newsom said at a news conference on Monday. “This is going to put a lot of pressure on hospitals and I see it going on vacation.”
4.5 million doses of vaccine administered
Vaccines, however, are ongoing – but experts said it probably won’t be for a few months before they are spread enough to have a significant impact on the course of the pandemic.
This means that less than 30% of the vaccine doses distributed in the USA have been administered. And only four states have so far administered at least half the doses of the vaccine that have been distributed to them, according to CDC data: Connecticut, North Dakota, South Dakota and Tennessee. Meanwhile, in a dozen other states, less than a quarter of the doses delivered have been administered.
When asked about the discrepancy between the doses of vaccine distributed and those administered, Operation Warp Speed’s chief scientific adviser, Moncef Slaoui, said that “nothing went wrong”, adding that it is the responsibility of states to actually administer the vaccines.
“We agree that there is a delay,” Slaoui told CNN. “We are available and ready to help states when they specifically ask for help.”
While some states have recognized local problems that have contributed to postponing vaccination, many, for months, said they needed significantly more federal funding to be able to carry out vaccine implantation plans.
In Kentucky, Governor Andy Beshear said on Monday that he “was not doing well” with the pace with which vaccines were being administered in the state.
“We need to move faster,” he said. “We need those who have already received the vaccine to move faster. We need our long-term care partners to move faster. ”
Reeves, Mississippi, said the launch was “going slower in Mississippi and slower across the country than any of us wanted”.
“But it is in progress,” he said. “It’s increasing. And we just need to step on the gas.”
But by reducing the amount retained to 10% in the first three weeks and providing a steady dose of six million doses per week, the United States could avoid up to 29% more cases in eight weeks, the study found.
Half doses of Covid-19 vaccines a ‘terrible idea’, says the expert
To help streamline vaccinations, Slaoui said the United States could start giving half-doses of Moderna’s vaccine to people aged 18 to 55 – which could make the vaccine available to twice as many people in that age group.
The decision, Slaoui said, is ultimately in the hands of the Food and Drug Administration.
“We have been following discussions and news on how to reduce the number of doses, increase the time interval between doses, change the dose (half dose) or mix and match vaccines to immunize more people against COVID-19,” the FDA commissioner , Dr. Stephen Hahn, and Dr. Peter Marks, director of the FDA’s Center for Biological Research and Evaluation, said in a statement.
“At the moment, suggesting changes in dosage or FDA-authorized schedules for these vaccines is premature and is not firmly rooted in the available evidence. Without appropriate data to support these changes in vaccine administration, we are at significant risk of putting public health at risk. at risk, undermining historic vaccination efforts to protect the population of COVID-19, “they added.
A member of the FDA’s vaccine advisory committee called half-doses a “terrible idea”.
“There is no data on the effectiveness of half a dose. If you use half a dose, you’re just making it up. You just hope you’re right,” said Dr. Paul Offit. “Why would you dare to invent something if you don’t know if it works or not?”
CNN’s Gisela Crespo, Maggie Fox, Deidre McPhillips, Michael Nedelman, Sanjay Gupta, Rebekah Riess, Pete Muntean, Naomi Thomas, Greg Wallace and Kristina Sgueglia contributed to this report.