Here’s what’s happening on Wednesday with the coronavirus pandemic in the U.S.:
THREE THINGS TO KNOW TODAY
– Several states are reporting they are running out of vaccine, and tens of thousands of people who managed to make an appointment for the first dose are seeing the cancellation. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that about half of the 31 million doses distributed to states by the federal government have so far been administered. Only about 2 million people received the two doses necessary for maximum protection against the virus.
– President Joe Biden is signing a series of executive actions that reverse their predecessor’s orders on immigration, climate change and the coronavirus pandemic. Biden is demanding the use of masks and social detachment in all federal buildings, on federal land and by federal and contracted officials. Biden is also directing the government to rejoin the World Health Organization.
– The new director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is arriving at an agency that was relegated to the background during the pandemic. Dr. Rochelle Walensky, 51, an infectious disease specialist at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, arrives at the CDC this week when the number of deaths from the coronavirus in the U.S. has exceeded 400,000 and the country’s largest vaccination campaign in history finds confusion and delays.
THE NUMBERS: The United States has an average of 201,000 new cases and about 3,000 deaths per day. The death toll in the country since the pandemic began is now around 403,000.
QUOTE: “It is so incredibly, unimaginably sad that so many people died that they could have been avoided.” – Cliff Daniels, director of strategy at Southern California Methodist Hospital, near Los Angeles, after the death toll in the U.S. reached 400,000.
ICYMI: California officials pin their hopes on President Joe Biden as they struggle to get coronavirus vaccines and to contain the outbreak of infections that filled hospitals and morgues. The San Francisco department of public health says it will likely run out of vaccine on Thursday. Los Angeles County is starting to vaccinate people 65 and older, despite the scarcity.
ON THE HORIZON: Biden took over as 46th President of the United States. His ambitious first 100-day plan includes an impulse to accelerate the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines to Americans and pass on a $ 1.9 trillion pandemic relief package.
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Find full AP coverage of the coronavirus pandemic at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic