Dr. Rochelle Walensky, Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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The head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Monday she is “really concerned” about the rollback of public health measures designed to stem the coronavirus pandemic as the number of cases in the US appears to be leveling off to a “very high”. number”.
The declines in Covid-19 cases seen since the beginning of January now appear to be slowing down around 70,000 new cases per day, said CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky during a White House newsletter. “With these statistics, I am really concerned that more states are rolling back the exact public health measures we have recommended to protect people from Covid-19.”
“Seventy thousand cases a day seems good from where we were a few months ago,” she said. “Please hear me clearly: at this level of instances where variants spread, we will completely lose the hard-earned soil we’ve extracted.”
The US records at least 67,300 new Covid-19 cases every day, based on a seven-day average calculated by CNBC based on data from Johns Hopkins University. The US peaked in early January after the winter break with nearly 250,000 cases per day.
Top US health officials, including Walensky and White House Chief Medical Advisory Dr. Anthony Fauci, have warned in recent weeks that the emergence of more contagious variants could reverse the current downward trajectory of infections in the US and restore the nation of the pandemic.
Last Sunday, the CDC identified 2,400 cases of the B.1.1.7 variant, first identified in the UK.The agency identified 53 cases of the B.1.351 strain from South Africa, as well as 10 cases of P. 1, a variant first identified in Brazil.
Fauci said Monday that US health officials are also closely monitoring another variant in New York that contains mutations that help bypass the body’s natural immune response.
Officials say viruses cannot mutate if they cannot infect and replicate hosts. They also urge Americans to get vaccinated as soon as possible before potentially new and even more dangerous variants continue to establish themselves.
Walensky said on Monday that vaccinations will help the US get out of the pandemic, praising that the Food and Drug Administration has approved Johnson & Johnson’s Covid-19 vaccine for emergency use, making it the third shot. approved for distribution in the US and the only vaccine that requires only one dose. Walensky signed the vaccine on Sunday.
The J&J vaccine is a “much-needed addition to our toolbox,” she said. By adding the authorization, more people will be able to get vaccinated.