People wait in line to get a coronavirus vaccine (COVID-19) at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in midtown Manhattan, west side, which has been converted into a mass vaccination site in New York City , New York, March 2, 2021.
Mike Segar | Reuters
WASHINGTON – The United States administered a record number of Covid-19 vaccines over the weekend, while public health officials urged state leaders to maintain social distance measures in place to prevent a new outbreak that could hamper progress in combating HIV. virus.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention administered 2.9 million vaccines on Saturday, a record high, and 2.4 million on Sunday, according to the agency’s latest count. The figures are subject to revision as more data becomes available to public health officials.
More than one in five adults has received at least one dose of the vaccine, while just over one in ten has received two doses, according to the CDC. The Moderna and Pfizer vaccines require two injections, while the newly approved Johnson & Johnson vaccine requires one.
Jeff Zients, the White House coronavirus response coordinator, told NBC’s Meet The Press on Sunday that the country is now administering more than 2 million injections per day on average, compared with 900,000 daily injections on average during the first days of the vaccination campaign.
President Joe Biden said last week that the United States would have enough vaccine doses for each adult by the end of May, two months ahead of schedule. However, Zients cautioned that while the country has made progress in increasing vaccinations, the country needs to double mitigation measures.
“We are on the right track – we need to make sure we don’t let our guard down,” said Zients. “People need to face the president’s challenge to mask. People need to get the vaccine when it’s their turn. We need to stay on this path and win this pandemic.”
Zients joins a chorus of public health officials warning the nation not to let their guard down while several states withdraw mask orders and loosen further restrictions on the coronavirus as cases decrease and vaccinations increase.
Last week, Arizona, Texas, Alabama, South Carolina, California and Mississippi relaxed restrictions to varying degrees.
The Arizona governor has closed capacity limits for companies, but said masks should still be required. Texas has also announced a return to full-capacity business, but has abandoned its masking mandate. The Alabama governor said the state would withdraw its mask mandate after April 9. South Carolina has suspended the state’s masking mandate in government buildings, but has recommended that restaurants continue to require facial coverage.
California will allow theme parks, outdoor sports and stadium live events to be restarted on April 1 with reduced capacity and mandatory masks. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced on Sunday that the state would allow restaurants outside of New York City to return to 75% capacity.
Mississippi also announced last week that companies could operate at full capacity and withdrew the state’s masking mandate.
On Sunday, Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves responded to criticisms from public health officials that his decision to ease Covid’s restrictions was premature.
“Our approach has been to not only protect lives, but also livelihoods. We need to get our economy rolling so that people can get back to work,” said Reeves in an interview with CNN’s “State of the Union”.
The White House chief medical advisor, Dr. Anthony Fauci, has warned Americans to still be vigilant and adhere to public health measures while the government works to vaccinate the country.
“We want to go back carefully and slowly,” said Fauci on CBS News’s “Face the Nation” program. “But don’t turn the switch on and off, because it really would be risky to have another outbreak again,” said Fauci of states that are changing mitigation methods.
Likewise, Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” program that the United States may see an increase in cases due to the new variants.
Osterholm explained on Sunday that the United States is “in the eye of the storm now”.
Osterholm said the prevalence of B.1.1.7 more infectious. variant, which was first identified in the UK, will continue to grow. He added that approximately 40% of cases across the country are linked to the variant.
While new Covid infections have continued to decline since the catastrophic peak of winter, they remain stubbornly high, with more than 60,000 new cases per day on average, according to data analysis from CNBC at Johns Hopkins University. This is comparable to the increase in the US experience last summer.
Deaths have also declined since the peak of the devastating winter, but remain dangerously high. More than 1,700 people die each day from the virus, on average, according to data from Johns Hopkins.