(Add quotes from officials)
WASHINGTON, Feb. 26 (Reuters) – The head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday that a recent decline in COVID-19 cases is likely to come to a halt, a development she described as she insisted to that the protection to fight the virus remains in place.
Dr. Rochelle Walensky told reporters the number of cases has increased over the past three days compared to the previous week, and that the decline in hospitalizations and deaths could also be a very high number.
Walensky painted a critical picture of the current state of the pandemic.
“Things are soft. This is not the time to relax restrictions. Cases, hospital admissions and deaths remain very high and the recent shift in the pandemic must be taken extremely seriously. ”
States and cities have gradually lifted restrictions in recent weeks. New York City reopened indoor meals earlier this month and Massachusetts plans to remove monthly restaurant capacity restrictions. Montana and Iowa lifted the state mask requirements earlier this month, while the North Dakota mask basket expired in January.
The White House on Friday urged companies to take part in combating the pandemic by wearing masks and educating customers.
Andy Slavitt, a senior adviser to the White House COVID-19 Response Team, listed a number of companies that had taken measures to help fight the pandemic and called for more to join.
He announced what he described as a new partnership between the Biden administration and leading business organizations to encourage the private sector to encourage companies to take off masks and social distance to protect employees and customers, making it easier to make for employees to be vaccinated and educated with incentives. the public about the benefits of masks and vaccines.
“We are asking businesses to increase CDC messages about masking and vaccinations on their products, properties and websites,” Slavitt said.
Ford and the gap produced and donated millions of masks, while Best Buy, Target and Dollar General gave workers paid time or compensated them for vaccinations.
Uber, PayPal and Walgreens worked together to give $ 10 million free rides to vaccination sites, while Lyft teamed up with CVS and the YMCA to offer $ 60 million free or discount rides to vaccination sites.
The White House is working on a broad-based campaign to educate Americans about the vaccine, as it seeks to bring the pandemic that has killed more than 500,000 people in the United States under control.
President Joe Biden on Thursday noted concerns that the supply of vaccines would exceed demand later this spring due to the hesitation of vaccines.
Moderna Inc. said Wednesday it is working with U.S. government scientists to study an experimental booster shot aimed at a new variant of the coronavirus.
Anthony Fauci, an expert in infectious diseases, said the study, which will be conducted by the National Institutes of Health, will start in mid-March and that there was no plan yet to start manufacturing the experimental booster on a large scale, as it is unclear or the new B1351 variant first found in South Africa will become a dominant variant in the United States.
Reporting by Jeff Mason in Washington and Carl O’Donnell in New York; additional reporting by Lisa Lambert Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Mark Heinrich