The impressive figures follow brutal rises in recent months, during which the United States saw hundreds of thousands of new cases daily, while the number of hospitalizations and deaths of Covid-19 reached all-time highs.
In Texas, the city of Laredo has run out of ICU beds and sent an emergency message to residents urging them to stay home, city spokeswoman Noraida Negron said. Over the weekend, the city had to send several patients to hospitals in other areas to accommodate the increase.
“We didn’t have any beds,” Negron added.
There are good reasons to keep your guard up
On the one hand, even with the apparent improvement, the country still made a daily average of about 207,000 new cases a day in the last seven days.
“The virus has established itself in the human population and is going nowhere,” infectious disease expert Amesh Adalja told CNN. “We will see a lot of transmission until we cross the threshold for herd immunity.”
“In some ways, it’s much worse than being more contagious because it will infect a lot more people and unfortunately it will probably end up killing more people,” Dr. Ashish Jha, dean of Brown University School of Public Health, told CNN. Monday night.
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said Monday that the variant is the biggest challenge facing the city.
“Our healthcare leadership here in New York City says we’re running against the time to vaccinate as many people as possible before this UK variant spreads like wildfire,” he told CNN.
9 states have administered more than half of their vaccine doses
The ratio of administered doses to administered doses is approximately 39%, but the metric varies greatly from state to state.
About nine states and Washington, DC, have administered more than 50 percent of the vaccine doses distributed, according to CDC data. They are Colorado, Connecticut, Kentucky, Louisiana, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Texas and West Virginia.
Two states have administered less than 25% of their doses: Alabama and Georgia.
Like other states they are trying to increase vaccinations
To increase their numbers, parts of the country are working to find ways to increase vaccinations.
In Wisconsin, Gov. Tony Evers opened a new Covid-19 vaccination site Monday at the Prevea Health / University of Wisconsin-Green Bay Kress Events Center.
Tommy Thompson, president of the University of Wisconsin system, says more vaccination sites will open soon, with the goal of opening places on the system’s 26 campuses.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz announced the state would launch a pilot vaccine program and partner with local school and health districts to target certain populations.
“These places will initially serve adults aged 65 and over, as well as preschool educators up to 12th, school staff and childcare workers,” a press release from the governor’s office said. “The community vaccination pilot program will be the basis for mass vaccination clinics in Minnesota communities once the federal government increases the supply of vaccines.”
In California, all Los Angeles County residents age 65 and older will be able to get the vaccine later this week, according to a new executive order signed by Supervisory Board President Hilda Solis.
“If we want to get out of this dark winter, it is critical that we advance vaccination of people over 65 as soon as possible, in line with Governor Gavin Newsom’s recommendations,” Solis said in a statement.
In Florida, 40,000 people have missed their second dose
Meanwhile, in Florida, more than 40,000 people who received the first dose of vaccine have been left behind by their second vaccine, according to the latest report from the state health department.
“Defeated” individuals are defined as “those who have received their first dose and have passed the recommended time to receive their second dose.”
It is unclear why residents have been left behind.
The two vaccines authorized for the U.S. market are a two-dose series. The second dose should be given 21 days after the first dose for the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine and 28 days later for the Modern vaccine.
The data comes when Dr. Anthony Fauci stressed the importance of keeping up with full doses of the vaccine in the right amount of time.
Speaking at the Clergy Black Black Choose Healthy Life Conclave, Fauci said an experiment was recently conducted evaluating different dosing regimens in people aged 18 to 55 years. The results showed that when a half dose was given followed by a half dose of booster, the antibodies produced were comparable to that of those who received two full doses.
“However, this is not a clinical trial that is equally comparable to protect you,” he said.
“Simply put, it fits with the full dose, followed by the full dose.”
Amanda Watts, Ashley Killough, Naomi Thomas, Michael Nedelman, Lauren Mascarenhas, Gregory Lemos, Deidre McPhillips and Jacqueline Howard contributed to this report.
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