“That’s what we feared – people letting their guard down over Christmas and New Year,” New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy said on Monday, announcing that the spread of the virus was increasing across the state.
In Los Angeles, which has been hit by the virus for weeks, a health official said the aftermath of the holiday season is probably still under way.
“It takes two to three weeks for patients to be sick enough to need the hospital after they contracted the virus, and Christmas was just two weeks ago, and we are already full,” said Dr. Anish Mahajan, medical director at Harbor -UCLA Medical Center.
“We no longer have an ICU capacity,” he added. “All hospitals in the region are placing ICU patients in unusual places in the hospital just to find space for them.”
Nearly 9 million people received the first dose of the vaccine
As of Monday morning, about 35.3% of the doses distributed had been administered, compared with about 30.2% on Friday.
Deadlines vary across the country and “access to Covid-19 vaccines in the first few months of the U.S. vaccination campaign can largely depend on where you live,” said the Kaiser Family Foundation, which studies health policies, in a report released on Monday.
The report found that 40 states are still in Phase 1a – when the CDC recommends vaccinating health workers and residents of long-term care facilities – in whole or in part. Ten states and Washington DC were in Phase 1b. Only Michigan has moved to at least part of Phase 1c, the report said.
For Phase 1b, the CDC recommended vaccinating people aged 75 and over and essential frontline workers and for Phase 1c, the agency recommended vaccinating people aged 65 and over, young people with high-risk conditions and other essential workers.
States are “making the decision to vaccinate as many people as possible” and circumventing vaccine prioritization recommendations, said Dr. Paul Offit, a member of the FDA’s vaccine advisory committee on Monday.
“I think where people are now is that they have the vaccine and they just want to get it out there,” said Offit.
Without the “public health infrastructure for mass vaccination”, states are having to learn how to administer mass vaccination in real time, and some are learning faster than others, he added.
How states are strengthening vaccination efforts
In Texas, Governor Greg Abbott visited a Covid-19 mass vaccination site on Monday and said the state plans to open about 28 similar sites in 18 counties.
“These vaccination centers will speed up the distribution of the vaccine and ensure efficiency in communities across the state,” said the governor.
In California, one million health care workers, nursing home residents and employees will receive the vaccine by the end of the week, the governor promised on Monday, as part of an “all hands on deck” effort to serve more vulnerable.
Meanwhile, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer has sent a letter to Secretary of Health and Human Services, Alex Azar, requesting permission to buy up to 100,000 doses of vaccines for the state.
“We are still ready to accelerate the distribution to put the doses in the arms,” said the governor.
In some parts, students go back to school
This all happens when some parts of the country received a wave of students who returned to face-to-face education this week.
Chicago public schools implemented the first stages of their phased reopening plan on Monday, receiving just over 6,000 pre-kindergarten and grouping students in classrooms.
“There are many students and families, 77,000 actually, who have chosen a face-to-face option and I am excited about the possibility of offering this right now,” said CPS CEO Janice Jackson at a news conference. “It has been 10 months since our students started attending school and I know that everyone signed up to do this job for the same reason, which is to provide our children with the quality education they deserve.”
The district said it has prepared itself with the purchase of air fresheners, facial covers and an abundant amount of cleaning and disinfectant materials and has made significant improvements to ensure that all schools have adequate ventilation.
“We went above and beyond … to make sure students and staff are safe,” said Jackson. “And we’re not done.”
In West Virginia, Governor Jim Justice has announced that schools can reopen for “face-to-face learning for eighth grade and below” starting Jan. 19. Series 9-12 will not be in person.
“Our medical experts believe … that exposure to return to school is extremely minimal. And from the point of view of our eighth grade onwards, it is very, very, very minimal,” said the governor. “And so, they believe it is absolutely safe.”
School sports training may not begin until mid-February, added Justice, with the aim of returning to the games in March.
“There is no perfect answer,” he said. “But the reality is very simple, our children are being devastated because they are not at school.”
CNN’s Amanda Watts, Artemis Moshtaghian, Maggie Fox, Samira Said, Jamie Gumbrecht, Lauren Mascarenhas and Evan Simko-Bednarski contributed to this report.