The impressive numbers have followed brutal increases in recent months – during which the United States saw hundreds of thousands of new cases daily, while the numbers of hospitalizations and deaths at Covid-19 reached an all-time high.
In Texas, the city of Laredo ran out of ICU beds and sent an emergency message to residents asking them to stay home, said city spokeswoman Noraida Negron. Over the weekend, the city had to send several patients to hospitals in other areas to accommodate the increase.
“We didn’t have beds of any kind,” added Negron.
There’s a good reason to keep your guard up
On the one hand, even with the apparent improvement, the country still had an average of about 207,000 new cases per day in the last seven days.
“The virus has established itself in the human population and is not going anywhere,” infectious disease specialist Amesh Adalja told CNN. “We will see a lot of transmission until we cross the threshold of herd immunity.”
“In a way, it is much worse that it is more contagious because it infects many, many more people and, unfortunately, it will probably end up killing more people,” Dr. Ashish Jha, dean of Brown University School of Public Health, told CNN Monday. at night.
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Monday that the variant is the biggest challenge the city faces.
“Our health leadership here in New York City, they say we are running out of time to vaccinate as many people as possible before the UK variant spreads like wildfire,” he told CNN.
9 states administered more than half of their vaccine doses
The proportion of doses administered to doses delivered is around 39% – but the metric varies widely between different states.
About nine states, in addition to Washington, DC, have administered more than 50% of the vaccine doses distributed, according to CDC data. These are Colorado, Connecticut, Kentucky, Louisiana, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Texas and West Virginia.
Two states administered less than 25% of their doses: Alabama and Georgia.
As other states are trying to increase vaccination
To increase their numbers, parts of the country are working to find ways to increase vaccination.
In Wisconsin, Governor Tony Evers was opening a new Covid-19 vaccination site on Monday at the Prevea Health / University of Wisconsin-Green Bay Kress Events Center.
Tommy Thompson, president of the University of Wisconsin System, says more vaccination sites will open soon, with the goal of opening sites on all 26 campuses in the system.
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz announced that the state was launching a pilot vaccine program and will partner with local school and health districts to target certain populations.
“These sites will initially serve adults 65 years of age and older, as well as from kindergarten to 12th grade educators, school officials and childcare workers,” said a press release from the governor’s office. “The pilot community vaccination program will be the basis for mass vaccination clinics in Minnesota communities once the federal government increases the supply of vaccines.”
In California, all Los Angeles County residents age 65 and older will be eligible to receive the vaccine later this week, under a new executive order signed by the Chairman of the Board of Supervisors, Hilda Solis.
“If we want to get out of this gloomy winter, it is critical that we move forward in vaccinating people 65 years of age or older as soon as possible – according to the recommendations of Governor Gavin Newsom,” Solis said in a statement.
In Florida, 40,000 people are late for their second dose
Meanwhile, in Florida, more than 40,000 people who received the first dose of the vaccine are late for their second injection, according to the state health department’s latest report.
Individuals “late” are defined as “those who received the first dose and exceeded the recommended period to receive the second dose”.
It is not clear why residents are late.
Both vaccines that have been authorized for the US market are a series of two doses. The second dose should be administered 21 days after the first dose for the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine and 28 days after for the Modern vaccine.
The data appear at the moment when Dr. Anthony Fauci highlighted the importance of keeping the two full doses of the vaccine within the appropriate timeframe.
Speaking at the Black Clergy Healthy Living Conclave on Monday, Fauci said an experiment evaluating different dosing regimens was recently carried out on people aged 18 to 55. The results showed that when a half dose was given followed by a half booster dose, the level of antibodies produced was comparable to that of someone who received two full doses.
“However, this is not clinical evidence that they are equally comparable in protecting you,” he said.
“In short, continue with the full dose, followed by the full dose.”
CNN’s Amanda Watts, Ashley Killough, Naomi Thomas, Michael Nedelman, Lauren Mascarenhas, Gregory Lemos, Deidre McPhillips and Jacqueline Howard contributed to this report.