US Coronavirus: Widespread vaccinations in the US will not arrive until the summer. Here’s what has been taking down the Covid-19 cases so far

US Coronavirus: Widespread vaccinations in the US will not arrive until the summer. Here’s what has been taking down the Covid-19 cases so far

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“That’s what we’re doing right: staying apart, wearing masks, not traveling, not mixing with other people in the home,” said Dr. Tom Frieden, former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, on Sunday.

The numbers of infections and hospitalizations for Covid-19 are plummeting across the country, after devastating waves following the holiday. But that does not mean that the United States is free.

“We had three outbreaks,” added Frieden. “Whether or not we have a fourth wave depends on us, and the stakes could not be higher – not only on the number of people who may die in the fourth wave, but also on the risk that even more dangerous variants will emerge if there is more uncontrolled spread. . “

That is why it is especially important that state leaders do not ease restrictions and withdraw masks’ mandates now, experts warned.

“It is encouraging to see these trends falling, but they are coming from an extraordinarily high place,” CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky told NBC on Sunday. “If we want to take our kids back to school, and I believe we all do, it all depends on how much community there is out there.”

“We all need to take responsibility for decreasing the spread of the community, including wearing masks, so that we can have our children and our society back,” added the director.

Homemade Covid-19 variants found in the USA

Among the most worrying strains of Covid-19 that have been detected in the USA is the highly contagious variant B.1.1.7, first detected in the United Kingdom. More than 1,100 cases of the variant have been reported in 39 states – with about a third of cases reported in Florida, according to CDC data.

The United States also reported at least 17 cases of one strain initially seen in South Africa and at least two cases of another strain, this strain initially linked to Brazil.

Batch of locally grown coronavirus mutations observed in the USA
Meanwhile, on Sunday, the researchers announced that they had identified a batch of similar worrying mutations in samples from Covid-19 in the U.S. that also appear to make the virus more transmissible.
All of these mutations affect the same stretch of the spike protein – the button-shaped extension on the outside of the virus it uses to connect to the cells it infects, the researchers wrote in a pre-printed report that has not yet been peer-reviewed.
But these mutations appear to be “relatively rare” so far, said one of the researchers.

States still struggle with vaccine supply

Public health experts say the United States is now in a race against time to vaccinate as many Americans as possible before the variants continue to spread and mutate further.

But as states increase their vaccines, the challenges remain – including scant supply.

What you need to know before making an appointment for a vaccine at your pharmacy

In San Francisco, officials have announced that a high-volume vaccination site will pause for a week and reopen “as soon as supplies are sufficient to resume operations.” A second high-volume site hopes to resume vaccinations on Friday – but only for second doses. A third high-volume vaccine site is due to be launched this week, officials said, but “with consultations available well below full capacity”.

“The supply of vaccine that reaches health providers in San Francisco and the Department of Public Health (DPH) is limited, inconsistent and unpredictable, making vaccine implementation difficult and denying the San Franciscans this potentially saving intervention,” officials said in a press release Sunday.

“The city has the capacity to administer more than 10,000 vaccines per day, but the vaccine stock is lacking,” they added.

The scarcity of supplies has also hampered operations in other parts of the state, although officials have recently announced that they will add millions more to the state’s priority vaccine list. Several Los Angeles Covid-19 vaccination sites were forced to close temporarily because of a lack of vaccine doses.
Small triumphs, some failures when the national vaccine pharmacy program Covid-19 takes off
In Washington state, officials said that appointments for the first dose will be “extremely limited” this week, as the state will focus on administering second doses.

“We are closely monitoring the distribution of doses and making the necessary adjustments,” Health Secretary Umair A. Shah said in a statement. “Although the limited availability of the first doses is a challenge next week, the focus on the second doses will help pave the way for better and more sustainable vaccine allocation in the coming weeks.”

The two states are far from alone in their struggles. Officials said supply will likely remain a challenge for a while, and experts say vaccines are unlikely to be widely available to the American public until late spring or summer.

Walensky, the director of the CDC, told Fox News on Sunday that she anticipates that “by the end of the summer, we will have enough vaccine to vaccinate the entire eligible US population.”

Specialist: Vaccination of teachers ‘essential’ for school reopening

Meanwhile, one of the central questions of vaccination now is when educators across the country will be able to get their vaccines.

Emergency doctor Dr. Leana Wen told CNN on Sunday that vaccinating teachers is crucial when it comes to reopening the school – differing in opinion from the school’s reopening guidance released last week by the CDC.
The CDC director says 'we have work to do' when it comes to reopening schools safely

The agency’s guidelines do not list vaccination as a “key” strategy for opening schools, focusing on measures such as masks and physical distance, among others. Vaccination for staff and teachers is “an additional layer of protection,” said Walensky earlier.

On Sunday, Walensky told CNN that, although vaccination for teachers is not a prerequisite for reopening schools, the current CDC guidance specifies that those most at risk should have virtual options.

“I strongly advocate that teachers receive vaccines, but we do not believe that it is a prerequisite for the reopening of schools,” she said.

But Wen called teachers’ vaccinations “essential”.

“If we want students to attend school for face-to-face learning, the least we can do is protect the health and well-being of our teachers – especially since in so many parts of the country, teachers are already being trained to return to school. school in tight, poorly ventilated areas, with many students who may not always be masking and practicing physical distance, “said Wen.

CNN’s Keith Allen, Ben Tinker, Michael Nedelman, Maggie Fox and Naomi Thomas contributed to this report.

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