Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, on Monday expressed concern about the direction of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States and said she was concerned that states reversing restrictions were “erasing” their progress. eradicate. made to reduce key statistics.
Walensky said recent CDC data indicate that the decline in the number of cases has flattened ‘very high’, with the number of positive cases exceeding 70,000 across the country.
Referring to the new statistics, Walensky said at the White House’s COVID-19 briefing that she was ‘really concerned’ about ‘reports that more states are taking the exact public health measures we have recommended to protect people from COVID-19’. , reproduce. ‘
“I understand the temptation to do so,” Walensky, formerly head of infectious diseases at the mass general, said of easing public health measures. ’70 000 cases a day looks good compared to where we were just a few months ago. But we can not rely on 70,000 cases a day, 2,000 daily deaths. Please hear me clearly. ‘
Walensky’s comments come on the day Massachusetts moves to the next step of the state’s reopening plan, a move that eases capacity constraints at restaurants and increases indoor venues such as theaters. Local epidemiologists also expressed their concern over the weekend over Governor Charlie Baker’s decision to withdraw restrictions.
“This is not the time to loosen the critical guarantees we know to stop the spread of COVID-19 in our communities. Not when we are that close, ”Walensky said, giving similar warnings during a briefing last week. “We have the ability to stop a potential fourth increase in cases in this country.”
She urged Americans to ‘stay strong’ and continue to wear masks and use other public health measures that help reduce the spread of COVID-19.
At a briefing Monday at Morningstar Baptist Church in Mattapan, Baker defended his decision to ease more restrictions, citing a decline in hospitalizations and positive cases and “the success of vaccine vaccination so far.”
Baker said his team is constantly reviewing the data to guide reopening decisions, calling it a “constant balancing act.” The administration will “make adjustments in other directions if necessary based on what is happening,” he said.
Baker said “1.2 million people in Massachusetts, many of whom are our most vulnerable citizens and residents,” received their first doses, and “550,000 of the most vulnerable residents” both had shots. More than 50 million people in the US received their first dose, according to CDC data.
Doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which received the Emergency Permission from the Food and Drug Administration on Saturday, are being distributed nationwide, and company officials said 3.9 million doses will be sent over the next two days. . These shipments are expected to arrive in states and territories as early as Tuesday, White House coronavirus response coordinator Jeff Zients said during the briefing.
Zients said the nearly 4 million doses are Johnson & Johnson’s entire stock, and company officials told the White House that supply would be limited ‘for the next few weeks’. ‘
By the end of March, J&J expects to deliver 16 million doses, Zients said, with the most doses to be in the second half of the month.
In light of the deployment of the vaccination of J&J, which requires one shot, dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith, chair of the COVID-19 Health Equity Health Task Team, commented on dr. Anthony Fauci reiterated over the weekend that people should not aim for a specific vaccination out of the three that have been approved.
“I urge everyone in America to get the first vaccine available to you,” Nunez-Smith said. ‘If people want to offer one vaccine to another, they may have to wait. Time is of the essence. Being vaccinated saves lives. ”
Amanda Kaufman can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @ amandakauf1.