Public health experts from states like Texas and Mississippi are criticizing the country for putting aside the mask order last week at a critical moment in the country’s epidemic.
They also warn of another threat to the benefits of fighting hard In recent weeks – The number of Americans testing for coronavirus has dropped significantly since January.
Although the slowdown in testing may be the result of fewer infections, it indicates that many Americans are happy that COVID-19 is on its way to March of the second year and that millions are being vaccinated every week.
Testing is a key part of efforts to control COVID-19, along with wearing masks, avoiding social distance, crowded spaces and hand hygiene. Although officials are optimistic the vaccine will protect, some warn that the nation will drop its protections before enough Americans are protected from the virus.
“A lot of people are just kind of treated with epidemics,” said Mary Head, a professor of internal medicine and pathology at Rush Medical College in Chicago.
In January, labs and other test sites completed an average of 1.9 million tests per day, reaching record levels. The average daily test dropped to 1.5 million in February and 1.3 million in March, according to the Covid Trekking Project.
Headen said the country’s testing had never reached a level that public health officials believed was “sufficient or best” to control the virus.
“We never got there,” said Hayden, a colleague from the Infectious Diseases Society of America. “And now we’re leaving.”
The lower the test, the lighter the social distance
It was hard to test in Metro Seattle and New York last spring when the first major outbreak occurred. The nation is slowly building capacity with private laboratories, and now the United States can test more than 2 million a day.
This is a reduction when the American people have asked for fewer tests. In the summer, some southern states dropped testing before the case could be re-filed.
Daily cases still exceed late summer and autumn levels, but fewer people are likely to have been exposed to the virus in recent weeks than at the peak of January. That means fewer people experience symptoms that force them to test.
As the epidemic turns into another year, people are less willing to get tested for the virus, Head said. At the onset of the epidemic, people demanded testing even though they had no symptoms or mild symptoms due to anxiety. About the virus. Based on the narrative reports, it seems that fewer people are being tested, he said.
Second factor: Public health agencies are focusing on limited resources to vaccinate more Americans. Former large test sites, such as Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles and State Farm Stadium near Phoenix, have been converted into mass vaccination sites.
Public health officials are concerned about the state government’s move to ease the social gap as soon as testing is reduced.
The masks announced by the governors of Alabama, Mississippi, Texas, Montana and Iowa are no longer needed to stop the spread of COVID-19. Of those five states, data from Johns Hopkins University shows that the percentage of positive tests in Montana last week was less than 5%, the threshold that the World Health Organization indicates before resuming.
However, local governments and private businesses can make their own choices about wearing masks in public places, such as rest restaurants rent, remove the state mask order and allow more people to gather indoors, which undermines virus control strategies. Which is important in reducing the spread of COVID-19. Humphries of Rome, Professor of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
He said bridging social gaps contributes to “the overall culture of the epidemic being slow” and convinces some people that testing is no less important.
“All of this is creating a sense that the epidemic is over,” Humphries said. “By no means is that true.”
As of Thursday, only 21% of adults had received at least one dose of the vaccine, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Four out of five adults in the U.S. have not been vaccinated.
Those who have received only one dose of Pfizer-Bioentech or Moderna vaccine are not completely safe. Now that the single-dose Johnson and Johnson vaccine is boosting the country’s vaccine supply, President Biden said there should be enough doses for every American by the end of May.
More vaccines on the way: Three vaccines. Increase in production. U.S. In May for every adult in the US – or sooner.
Dr. Rebecca Weintraub Bay, an assistant professor in the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School, said people are not completely safe until two weeks after receiving both Pfizer-Bioentech or Moderna vaccines.
Although preliminary data are positive, it is not known whether the vaccine prevents the spread of the virus from one person to another.
“What we do know is that the virus is spreading in our communities.” “And so one of the most effective ways to understand, either I’m infected or I might be infected, is testing.”
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Members have noted a “significant reduction” in the number of tests at healthcare institutions across the country, American Legion American pathologists said.
In Metro Seattle, testing has dropped with new cases. In the lab at the University of Washington, Washington, the tests increased in late autumn. Tests are the top half of the fall, said Geoffrey Baird, the university’s executive president of laboratory medicine and pathology.
Vaccine rollout is a fixed period that Baird and others are watching. If vaccination efforts slow down, as more states relax mask mandates and virus types, there could be another large increase in these cases.
“All of us in the testing business are wondering what will happen in the next month or so,” he said.
Heads said people must also be vigilant as more and more people are being vaccinated.
“While infection rates are very low, they are still high,” Head said. “I don’t think we’re in a place yet where we can really relax our overall strategy and reduce testing.”
Contributors: Karen Weintraub
Contact Kenneth Latkar at [email protected]
This article originally appeared on USA Today: Coronavirus testing slows down between vaccines and related doctors
