American coronavirus: At this rate, January is the deadliest month of Covid-19 in the US

However, according to Johns Hopkins University data, it took just ten days to reach 2.2 million cases by 2021.

And new infections, hospitalizations and deaths continue to rise.

“We are in a serious situation,” said Dr. Ashish Jha, dean of the Brown University School of Public Health, said.

“We know how to slow down the spread of the virus. We need mask mandates. We need people to really stay home and avoid any indoor gatherings.”

According to officials, many Americans did the opposite during the holidays and met with friends or extended family. Now the consequences are becoming clearer in packed hospitals across the country.

A deadlier pace than 2020

More than 27,000 new deaths in Covid-19 were reported in the first ten days of 2021, according to data from Johns Hopkins.

At this rate, more people could die from Covid-19 in January than any other month of this pandemic. December had a record high of 77,431 deaths due to Covid-19.

On Saturday, the United States suffered 3,655 new deaths in Covid-19, along with 269,623 new infections, according to Johns Hopkins.

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In hard-hit Arizona, the crisis will get worse, said Joe K. Gerald, associate professor at Zuckerman College of Public Health at the University of Arizona.

“We can expect to set new records for cases, hospitalizations and deaths in the coming weeks. Policy action is urgently needed to mitigate the worst possible outcome,” Gerald wrote.

He also expressed concern about ‘the inevitable arrival of the more transmissible’ coronavirus strain that was first detected in the UK and spread to at least eight US states, including California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, New York, Pennsylvania and Texas.

“If it gathers foothold, it will accelerate, prolong and deepen the Arizona outbreak,” Gerald said.

Thursday was the first day the U.S. reported more than 4,000 new deaths in Covid-19 in one day.

The toll could worsen as more hospitals became full.

There were 129,229 Covid-19 patients in U.S. hospitals on Sunday, according to the COVID Tracking Project – the sixth-highest figure recorded. It was the fortieth consecutive day that U.S. Covid-19 hospitalizations remained above 100,000.

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The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the recent riot at the U.S. Capitol was likely to be a “training event” that would “likely lead to a significant spread” across the country.
“You largely unmasked people in a non-distancing way, all of whom were through the Capitol,” said Dr. Robert Redfield told the McClatchy newspaper group.

“Then these individuals are now all going home in cars and trains and planes across the country.”

CNN’s medical analyst and emergency physician, Dr. Leana Wen, reflecting the statement and Ana Cabrera told CNN on Sunday: ‘Individuals who have not used masks or social distance are also unlikely to follow these guidelines when returning to their home communities. “

“And it is very likely that they are doing other risky behaviors there and could possibly spread coronavirus all over the country, wherever they come from,” she said. “I hope that everyone who took part in the events will go back and be quarantined and tested.”

‘Our most dangerous time’

In Kentucky, Governor Andy Beshear said his state is seeing a “real and significant increase in cases and our positivity rate from people’s gatherings around the holidays.”

“This boom we are currently in is at least twice as great as the seriousness of previous training we have seen,” the governor said Friday. “This is our most dangerous time.”

Hospitalizations are climbing in Texas, where a record number of Covid-19 patients were reported Saturday for the seventh consecutive day. At least 13,935 patients were admitted to the hospital, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services.

According to the Florida Department of Health Care Administration, there were 7,497 Covid-19 patients in hospitals in Florida on Sunday. That’s about 3,000 more patients than were admitted to the state on December 12 a month ago when the AHCA reported 4,343 hospitalizations.

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And California set two new records on Saturday – the most deaths reported in a single day, 695, and the most Covid-19 patients in intensive care units – 4,939. The state reported nearly 50,000 new cases and 468 deaths on Sunday.

“The speed with which we are reaching bleak milestones of COVID-19 deaths and cases is a devastating reflection of the tremendous spread that is occurring across the country,” said Barbara Ferrer, director of public health in Los Angeles.

“The best way to protect ourselves, slow down the spread and stop overwhelming our hospitals is to take part in any activities that are not absolutely necessary,” she said.

“It’s just not the time to go to the mall or to a friend’s house to watch a basketball or soccer game.”

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Meanwhile, the country’s Covid-19 vaccine is not working at all as intended, “said Dr. Megan Ranney, a CNN medical analyst and emergency physician.

“We have three times as many doses distributed to states as it actually got in its arms,” ​​she said. “We have to do something different, and we have to do something different now.”

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Elected President Joe Biden will strive to release almost all available doses of Covid-19 vaccines in an effort to rapidly increase U.S. vaccination, a spokesman for his transition team said.

But it can also be risky, as the vaccines from Pfizer / BioNTech and Moderna require two doses administered week after week to be approximately 95% effective, and vaccine production has not increased as fast as many experts had hoped.

The plan is a halt to the strategy of the Trump administration, which has withheld doses of the vaccines to ensure second doses are available.

Dr Celine Gounder, a member of Biden’s coronavirus advisory board, told CNN on Saturday that the new plan was aimed at “taking doses as soon as possible” and simplifying distribution.

Officials do not recommend that patients delay the second dose, she said. People should still plan to receive the second dose of Pfizer’s vaccine 21 days after the first dose, and the Moderna vaccine 28 days after the first dose.

“As long as there are no manufacturing errors, we are confident that the supply of vaccine will be there when people return for their second dose,” Gounder said.

Ranney said she believes the plan ‘makes sense’, saying the US “should rethink how we take the doses we have and put them in people’s arms.”

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“Time is absolutely essential,” she said. But she also stressed that people should abide by the two-dose FDA-approved regimen.

Asked about the plan, Wen said she supported any attempt to speed up vaccination, “but we also need to look at where the bottleneck is.”

“Right now, the demand is not so much supply, but it’s actually the last mile to get (vaccines) from the distribution sites to people’s arms,” ​​she said. “If we need more, it’s not the solution to the real problem.”

Wen also said that every person who received the first dose would be guaranteed a timely second dose because that is how clinical trials were performed.

If there is not enough vaccine in reserve for people to receive second doses, she said: “I think it can really stimulate the vaccine’s hesitation and further erode public confidence in these vaccines.”

CNN’s Miguel Marquez, Hollie Silverman, Christina Maxouris, Chuck Johnston, Kay Jones, Cheri Mossburg, Lauren Mascarenhas, Jason Hanna and Dakin Andone contributed to this report.

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