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COVID-19: Texas, Mississippi returns to epidemic standards
The governors of both states signed an executive order revoking the order of face masks and have returned to pre-epidemic standards.
Staff Video, USA Today
Public health experts from states like Texas and Mississippi are criticizing the country for putting aside the mask order this week at a crucial stage in the country’s epidemic.
But they have also warned of another threat to hard-fought gains in recent weeks – the number of Americans testing for coronavirus has dropped significantly since January.
While a slowdown in testing may be the result of a low infection, it could indicate that many Americans have been vaccinated with COVID-19 since March of the second year and millions are vaccinated every week.
Testing is a key part of efforts to control COVID-19, as well as avoid wearing masks, social distance, crowded spaces and hand hygiene. While officials are optimistic the vaccine will provide protection, some warn that the nation will give its guards down before enough Americans are protected from the virus.
“A lot of people are just kind of with an epidemic,” said Mary K. Head, professor of internal medicine and pathology at Rush Medical College 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 so far in March, according to the Covid Trekking Project.
Head said the country’s testing had never reached a level that public health officials believed was “adequate or optimal” 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 gradually built capacity with private laboratories, and now the U.S. Can test over 2 million every day.
This current recession is not the first time Americans have asked for fewer tests. In the summer, some southern states dropped testing before the case could be re-filed.
Daily cases still surpass late-summer and fall levels, but fewer people have been exposed to the virus in recent weeks than at the peak of January. That means Fewer people are experiencing 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 because they were concerned about the virus. Now, based on fictional reports, it looks like non-symptomatic people are doing less testing, he said.
Second factor: Public health agencies are focusing on limited resources to vaccinate more Americans. Formerly large test sites, such as Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles and State Farm Stadium near Phoenix, have been converted into mass vaccination sites.
As testing weakens, public health officials are concerned about recent steps by the state government to ease the social gap.
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 last week alone the proportion of Montana positive tests 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’s mask order and allow more people to gather indoors, undermining virus control strategies that Important in reducing the spread of COVID-19. Professor of Vanderbilt University Medical Center of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology, said Humphries of Rome.
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.
Even those who have received only one dose of Pfizer-Bioentech or Moderna vaccine are not completely safe. Encouraging the nation’s vaccine supply with a single dose of Johnson and Johnson’s vaccine, President J. Biden said there should be a sufficient dose for every American by the end of May.
More vaccines on the way: Three vaccines. Increase in production. U.S. In May there will be enough Covid-19 vaccine for every adult in the US – or so soon.
Dr. Rebecca Weintrubbay, an assistant professor in the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School, said people are not completely safe for two weeks after receiving both Pfizer-Bioentech or Modern vaccines.
And although preliminary data are positive, it is still 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 the new case. In the lab at the University of Washington, Washington, the tests increased in late autumn. Geoffrey Baird, executive president of laboratory medicine and pathology at the University of Washington, said tests are now about half of this fall.
Vaccine rollout is a fixed period that Baird and others are watching. Baker said if vaccination efforts slow down, as more states relax the mask command and gain traction in new variants, there could be another large increase in these cases.
“All of us in the testing business are wondering what will happen next month,” 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 there were places yet where we could really relax our overall strategy and reduce testing.”
Contributor: Karen Weintraub
Contact Kenneth Latkar at [email protected]
