Infectious infectious diseases see a plateau in cases of coronavirus in the US and hospitalizations, although it is far too early to link the positive news to the ongoing vaccinations.
Instead, experts attribute the decline to the post-holiday period, as fewer people travel in indoor conditions.
“After a long winter push, the country is starting to experience a declining number of new COVID-19 infections,” said Dr. Steven Gordon, chairman of Infectious Diseases at Cleveland Clinic, wrote in an email. “While vaccinations will play an important role in fighting the pandemic, this slowdown in cases is probably not yet the result of vaccinations. More likely, the plateau occurs because fewer people travel and gather as we move past the holiday season. . “
Data from Johns Hopkins University reports a steady decline in daily cases since early January, declining from nearly 250,000 new infections to about 170,000 in recent days, averaging 7 days. The nationwide positivity rate, or the percentage of tests returning positive, dropped from more than 13% to 9.4% in January. Hospitalizations are also falling; from about 130,000 in hospital care around Jan. 10 to 118,000 more recently, averaging 7 days of The COVID Tracking Project.
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Dr Anthony Fauci, President Biden’s chief medical adviser on COVID-19, told NBC News on Monday that the figures represented a natural peak and plateau.
“The number of vaccines we have received in the arms of people, a good start, we want to keep going, a lot of people need to be vaccinated, but I do not think the dynamics of what we are seeing now with the plateau has not been significantly affected. “It will be soon, but still through the vaccine,” he said. “I just think it’s the natural course of plateau.”
As vaccinations become more widespread in the population, experts expect a significant decrease in hospitalizations, especially among the elderly and people with underlying conditions with a higher risk of severe COVID-19, says Dr. Robert Kim-Farley, professor at the UCLA Fielding School of Public. Health.
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There have been at least 21.8 million COVID-19 vaccinations in the U.S. to date, or less than about 5% of the country’s population, per Centers for Disease Control & Prevention.
“We are not close to about 75% of the population that needs to be immune before the outbreak dies out due to ‘herd immunity’,” Dr. Dean Winslow, chief physician for infectious diseases at Stanford Health Care, wrote in an email. ” It is so important for Americans to continue to follow these physical preventative measures until we reach 75%. ‘
Dr. Gordon at the Cleveland Clinic noted that the current rate of vaccinations and the spread of virus are likely to require mitigation measures such as wearing masks and social distribution through the summer to prevent further spread of viruses as the country moves toward herd immunity.