In less than a year, Covid-19 killed nearly 400,000 Americans.
And within the next month alone, another 100,000 lives could be lost to the disease, said the incoming director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“By mid-February, we expect half a million deaths in this country,” said Dr. Rochelle Walensky told CBS ‘”Face the Nation” on Sunday.
“It does not speak to the tens of thousands of people living with an as yet uncharacterized syndrome after recovering,” Walensky said. leads the CDC.
Some people who had Covid-19 developed symptoms months after they tested positive.
“And we have not yet seen the consequences of the events during the holiday trip, of the holiday gathering, in terms of high hospitalization rates and the deaths thereafter,” Walensky said.
“I think we have a few more dark weeks ahead.”
100 million doses in 100 days: Walensky said on Sunday that the Biden government would address a “bottleneck” in the distribution of Covid-19 vaccines and achieve its goal of delivering 100 million doses within 100 days.
“I think there are bottlenecks in different places in the whole system,” Walensky told Face the Nation.
“Different states have different challenges: how many are rolled out to each state, whether the states have adequate staff, or the countries get vaccinations in pharmacies,” she said. “Our job is to make sure that, with all the support from the federal government, we address all the bottlenecks wherever we are, so that we can get vaccinated in the arms of people.”
Elected President Joe Biden says his goal is to distribute 100 million vaccine doses in his first 100 days of office.
“We have looked closely and are confident that over the next 100 days we will have enough vaccines for the 100 million doses,” Walensky said. “It’s going to be a solid elevator, but we have to do it.”
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