The death toll comes on the heels of several brutal months, with Covid-19 plaguing communities from coast to coast, paralyzing hospital systems and causing new widespread restrictions.
“We can quite possibly see a post-seasonal – in the sense of Christmas, New Year’s – revival,” said dr. Anthony Fauci said Sunday morning on CNN’s “State of the Union” and pointed to vacation trips and private gatherings taking place. despite the advice of health experts.
The country’s leading expert on infectious diseases described the possible increase in cases as a ‘boom in a boom’, and told CNN’s Dana Bash: ‘If you look at the slope, the slope of cases we experience is when we have late fall and soon early winter, it’s really quite worrying. ‘
This is the 26th consecutive day that the US remains above 100,000 current hospitalizations.
All five highest days for hospitalizations were in the past week.
Another increase in cases and hospitalizations will inevitably mean more deaths – in addition to an already fatal death toll.
“If you’re dealing with a baseline of 200,000 new cases a day and about 2,000 deaths a day, with hospitalizations of more than 120,000, we’re really at a very critical point,” Fauci said.
“If we come in the next few weeks,” he added, “it could actually get worse.”
Fauci’s remarks on Sunday came as the US surpassed 19.1 million cases of coronavirus, and this is another milestone for the pandemic, which comes just over 11 months after the first case in the United States at the end of January. States were recorded.
As of 8pm Sunday, Johns Hopkins University reported 125,041 new cases and 1,160 deaths.
“The projections are just nightmares,” said Dr. Peter Hotez, a specialist in infectious diseases at Baylor College of Medicine, said. “People can still save the lives of their loved ones by giving up social distance and giving masks. And remember, vaccines are around the corner.”
Vaccination of vaccines is slow in some places, says expert
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly 2 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine have been administered, and more than 9.5 million doses have been distributed.
Asked about the seemingly slow deployment of vaccines, Fauci told CNN on Sunday that large, comprehensive vaccination programs with a new vaccine are starting slowly before gaining momentum.
“I’m pretty confident that as we gain more and more momentum, from December to January and then February to March, I believe we will catch up with the projection,” he said.
Dr Esther Choo, a professor of emergency medicine at Oregon Health & Science University, explained that the distribution of vaccines ‘is just a very complicated thing’.
“In every step, there is complexity and there is potential for delay, whether it is individual state planning, allocation, training, vaccine supply, storage … there are still so many factors at this stage,” Choo said.
“We need to be prepared for the fact that in many places it will be a slow rollout and that it will not change our behavior or necessarily the trajectory of the pandemic in this country in the short term,” Choo said.
A number of experts have warned Americans not to watch when vaccinations begin, and to continue wearing masks, taking social distances, avoiding crowds and gatherings and washing their hands regularly.
It will probably only be in the summer that vaccines become widely available and begin to make a significant impact on the course of the pandemic, officials said. According to Fauci, about 70% to 85% of the population must be vaccinated against Covid-19 to secure the country’s immunity.
Expert: Test requirements do not help control the distribution of the Covid-19 variant
Passengers had to have a negative PCR or antigen test within 72 hours of boarding a UK flight to the US, along with documentation of their laboratory results. Airline must confirm the test before the flight.
The third case of the variant first identified in the UK has been detected in Ottawa, Canada, a press release from the Ontario government said Sunday.
The case is according to the release a person who recently traveled from the UK. That individual is now in self-isolation.
It has since been found that the two previous cases reported on Saturday had contact with a recent UK traveler.
According to an expert, the new test requirements for travelers to the US were not implemented quickly enough to be effective against a report.
“It is logical that for every place that experiences a local increase in cases where we introduce new measures,” said dr. Richina Bicette, medical doctor, told CNN. “But if they try to make sure the virus is not imported into the United States, these measures will not affect any of this.”
Virginia Langmaid, Pete Muntean and CNN’s Hollie Silverman contributed to this report.