US Coronavirus: Hospital admissions are lowest in nearly 2 months. But the US is still facing ‘tough’ weeks in the coming weeks, expert says

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More than 97,000 patients remain hospitalized with the virus – a long way from the country’s peak of more than 132,400 on Jan. 6. The last time this number fell below 100,000 was December 1.

“Right now it’s the worst possible worlds. It’s winter. It’s getting cold outside, people are more together, there is still a critical number of people in the United States who don’t wear masks, who don’t have social distance,” Dr. Paul Offit, a member of the FDA’s vaccine advisory committee, told CNN on Saturday. “I think the next six weeks or two months is going to be tough.

According to projections by the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, nearly 120,000 Americans could lose their lives from the virus in the next two months.
A fast variant spread could push that projection even higher. That’s why experts have pushed for a doubling of security measures such as masks and social aloofness, and have called for accelerated vaccinations across the country.
On Saturday, Maryland became the second state to report a case of a Covid-19 variant first identified in South Africa. And officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say cases of another variant – first identified in the UK – have been discovered in at least 30 states. Experts have said that both strains appear to be more transferable.

29.5 million doses administered

But there is good reason for hope.

Two vaccines have already been given the green light for the US market and more could come.
According to data from the CDC, more than 29.5 million vaccine doses have been administered nationwide to date. About 5.2 million Americans have received both doses of a vaccine.

Hampered by weeks of allocation and distribution issues, the numbers are lower than where experts ever hoped the US would be today. But health and government officials hope that vaccinations will increase in the coming months.

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In New York, Governor Andrew Cuomo’s office said Saturday morning that the state had administered 91% of the first doses of vaccine it received from the federal government and pushed for more supply.

“New York’s extensive distribution network can handle more than 100,000 vaccinations a day, but to actually do it we need more doses from the federal government,” Cuomo said in a statement.

The governor previously announced that the state will be getting 16% more doses in the next three weeks. In his statement on Saturday, Cuomo said that while the bump is a “welcome increase, the reality is we just need more inventory.”

In Washington State, health officials announced that more than 10,000 people had been vaccinated at the state’s massive vaccination sites with the help of the state National Guard and other partners.

“The goal of mass vaccination sites is to increase access to vaccines across the state, ensure our plans are fair and protect those most at risk,” said a statement by Washington State’s health department.

Transit authorities implement CDC guidelines

Meanwhile, an order from the CDC takes effect Monday night requiring people to wear masks while using any public transportation in the US.

The agency said public transport operators should make every effort to enforce the mandate, including only boarding those wearing masks and disembarking passengers who refuse to comply.

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Transit authorities in several major US cities and states – including New York, New Jersey, Washington, DC, San Francisco, Chicago, and Atlanta – told CNN that they are already in compliance.

In Washington, DC, the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority told CNN that “facial covering has been required on Metro since May.”

“We welcome any policy that further promotes compliance on Metro and in all public spaces to stem the spread of the virus, and welcome the ability of TSA and other federal authorities to enforce this mandate where necessary,” said a spokesman .

In California, a Bay Area Rapid Transit spokesperson said the Bay Area public transportation system has had a face coverage mandate since April.

And in Atlanta, a spokesman said the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority started demanding masks in July.

I am trying to understand more about the virus

And now, more than a year since the world first heard about the virus, a team of World Health Organization researchers investigating the origins of the pandemic will head to a wholesale seafood market in Wuhan, China on Sunday – the market that is believed to be where the first Covid-19 infections were detected.

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The team of experts was released from a two-week quarantine on Thursday, a member told CNN.

The research comes about a year after the Chinese city was shut down due to the pandemic, and there is skepticism about how much the team of scientists will be able to discover.
A previous report from a WHO team in China, published in February 2020, found that “significant knowledge gaps remain” about the virus, although it supported previous findings that the virus appeared to be from animals, with the likely initial outbreak in the seafood. market in Wuhan.

CNN’s Alta Spells, Sandi Sidhu, Lauren Mascarenhas, Laura Ly, Amanda Watts and Hollie Silverman contributed to this report.

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