The director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said Monday (March 22) that she fears an inevitable rebound of new coronavirus cases as more states ease up on prevention and control measures and more people travel across the United States.
At a Web video press conference held by the White House New Coronavirus Response Team, CDC Director Vallensky said the seven-day average of new cases per day in the U.S. has climbed to 53,800 over the past week, while the two-week average figure hovers before 50,000 to 60,000 cases per day.
At the same Time, she said, U.S. states are finding more and more cases related to variants of the virus, especially in California, the most populous state in the country. In California, 52 percent of new infections are of the new variant.
Considered together, these statistics should serve as a warning to all Americans that the pandemic is not over, Walenski said.
“I understand. We all want to get back to our daily lives and spend time with our families, our friends and our loved ones.” She said.
Walenski said the United States is at a critical point in the pandemic, and she fears that if the country doesn’t take the right action, it will be headed for an “inevitable backlash, like we’re currently seeing in Europe, at the same time that we’re still expanding vaccinations so heavily.”
The White House task force on the New crown outbreak reported that 81 million people in the United States, or nearly 25 percent of the population, have received at least one dose of the vaccine, and another 41 million, or about 13 percent of the population, have been fully vaccinated. Valensky said 69 percent of those aged 65 and older have received at least one dose of the vaccine and 42 percent have been fully vaccinated.
She said the statistics show the vaccine is working because the percentage of emergency room patients under the age of 65 has increased since the outbreak.
At the press conference, Dr. Fauci, the chief U.S. infectious disease expert, said he sees the recent U.S. trials of the AstraZeneca vaccine as good news. These trials showed that the vaccine was effective in at least 79 percent of all adults, and none of the participants in the trials reported any serious side effects or health problems that have been reported elsewhere.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has not approved the AstraZeneca vaccine for use in the United States. The company said it plans to apply for approval in the U.S. “in the next few weeks.
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