Lila Blanks is holding the coffin of her husband, Gregory Blanks, 50, who died of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), prior to his funeral in San Felipe, Texas, USA, January 26, 2021.
Callaghan O’Hare | Reuters
The United States kicked off 2021 with the deadliest month of the coronavirus pandemic to date.
The January death toll has already surpassed the previous record fatalities in December, when more than 77,400 people in the US died from Covid-19, according to data collected by Johns Hopkins University. According to data, the pandemic has so far claimed more than 79,200 lives this month.
According to Hopkins data, the country reported an average of more than 3,300 Covid-19 deaths per day in the past seven days, 12% more than a week ago.
There is hope that the death toll will slow in the coming weeks. The number of new cases reported daily in the US, which epidemiologists use as a leading indicator of whether the outbreak is growing or decreasing, has been steadily declining in recent days as a wave triggered by interstate travel and holiday celebrations appears to be waning.
The US reported about 146,600 new cases on Tuesday, dropping the seven-day average of new cases to just over 166,300 and down about 17% from a week ago, according to Hopkins data.
The number of people currently hospitalized with Covid-19 in the US is also declining, although it remains alarmingly high. According to data from the COVID Tracking Project, which was founded by journalists from The Atlantic, more than 108,900 people have been hospitalized with the disease as of Tuesday. That’s beyond the peak of more than 130,000 hospital patients reported earlier this month.
But the potential spread in the US of new, more contagious strains of the virus, coupled with a slower-than-expected roll-out of the vaccines, threatens to reverse progress in fighting the outbreak.
The B.1.1.7 strain of the virus, which was first discovered in the UK and has become the dominant strain there, has been found in a number of states in the U.S. Epidemiologists say the strain appears to spread more easily and British officials have said it could also be more deadly.
As of Monday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said 293 cases related to that strain of the virus have been found in the US, primarily Florida and California.
And earlier this week, the Minnesota Department of Health said it had confirmed the first known US case of another strain of the virus originally discovered in Brazil. Another so-called care variant, called 501Y.V2 or B.1.351, was first discovered in South Africa, depending on the epidemiologist, and is of concern to scientists as vaccines and drugs appear to be less effective against that species. No cases related to that species have yet been discovered in the US
In an effort to stop the spread of the virus and especially the import of new species, President Joe Biden earlier this week banned most non-U.S. Citizens traveling from South Africa from entering the U.S. and expanded travel restrictions for Europe, the UK and Brazil.
The president has painted a bleak picture of the outbreak, saying on Monday that the US will see “somewhere between 600,000 to 660,000 deaths in total before we start to turn the corner in any significant way.”
While urging people to wear masks and follow public health measures such as social distance, Biden is working to accelerate the rollout of the Covid-19 vaccines, blaming the initially slow pace on the Trump administration. On Monday, he said the US could get more than 1.5 million vaccinations a day, compared to its previously target rate of 1 million a day, which was already nearly met by the latest government.
“Time is of the essence,” he said earlier this week. “ We’re trying to get a minimum of 100 million vaccinations in 100 days, and are heading in the direction that we’re way past the next 100 days so we can get to the point where we achieve herd immunity in a country. of more than 300 million people. “
On Tuesday, he said the government is working to purchase an additional 200 million doses of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, which will push the US supply from 400 million doses to 600 million, although that won’t accelerate vaccinations any time soon. He also said the administration will increase the number of doses shipped to the states each week by about 20%. Some states have said they have the capacity to vaccinate more people, but are limited by the supply.