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As US states faced a deadline to order a coronavirus vaccine, California returned to lockdown and federal authorities advised wearing masks indoors, new infections hit a record 227,885 on Friday.
Many states are reporting record infections, hospitalizations and deaths, with healthcare systems pushed to the limit. The number of Americans hospitalized with Covid-19 hit an all-time high on Thursday, at 100,667.
The daily average number of cases is 210,000 and deaths average 1,800 per day, according to Johns Hopkins University, which recorded 2,607 deaths on Friday out of a total of 279,409. The United States has registered more than 14 million cases in total.
The alarming increase is attributed in part to millions of people choosing to travel and meet up during the Thanksgiving holidays.
“People were less willing to change their behavior than [on] any other day during the pandemic, ”Laura Schewel, founder of StreetLight Data, an analytics company, told the Associated Press.
As he continues to unsuccessfully contest his resounding defeat in the Joe Biden presidential election, Donald Trump faces mounting criticism for an alleged lack of leadership.
Ahead of a federal meeting of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) next week that could give the green light to emergency authorization for a vaccine produced by Pfizer, states were informed of the deadline for the Friday to order the two-stage jab.
On Saturday, Dr. James Hildreth, a member of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) vaccine advisory committee and the president and CEO of Meharry Medical College, told NBC that vaccines could start soon. after the crucial meeting.
“We will spend Thursday reviewing the Pfizer data and a vote will be taken at the end of the day,” he said. “So at the end of next Thursday, there could be a decision on the vaccine.
“If the FDA commissioner decides to issue the approval … on the day the vote takes place, already on Friday of next week, we could see vaccines all over the country.”
That help is needed. In Boise, Idaho, National Guard troops have classified patients outside health facilities to the limit. In Arizona on Saturday, health officials spoke in direct tones as the state reported 6,799 cases, its second-highest daily increase.
The state Department of Health Services said people should wear masks “with anyone who is not a member of your household, including those you know and trust.” The department’s director, Dr. Cara Christ, said that people “should take precautions as if we could be infected. And we must act as if anyone around us could be infected. “
The cases reported on Saturday were just a record 10,322 reported on Tuesday, a high that includes data delayed for Thanksgiving weekend. This week there were four daily reports of more than 5,000 cases.
In southern California, health officials announced that a vast region will be subjected to a radical new blockade. The state department of public health said intensive care capacity had fallen below the 15% threshold that triggers the new measures, which include strict business closings and new activity controls. They will go into effect Sunday night and will remain in place for at least three weeks, which means that the closure will cover the Christmas holidays.
Much of the state is on the brink of the same restrictions. Some regions have chosen to enforce them even before the mandate takes effect, including five counties in the San Francisco Bay Area.
The World Health Organization has warned governments and citizens not to lower their guard even when vaccination is close.
“We have seen the number of infected people continue to grow, but we are also seeing data emerging that protection may not be for life and therefore reinfections may begin to occur,” said Dr. Mike Ryan , Executive Director of the WHO Health Emergencies Program. he told reporters in Geneva on Friday.
Britain approved the Pfizer vaccine, raising hopes that the tide will soon turn against a virus that has killed nearly 1.5 million worldwide. But that has also generated controversy, after prominent American expert Dr. Anthony Fauci stepped forward and retracted a view that British authorities had not properly analyzed the data.
Fauci, a member of the White House task force, said on Friday that healthy Americans should not expect to receive a vaccine anytime soon, as healthcare workers, the elderly and people with chronic diseases would be prioritized.
“A healthy non-elderly person with no recognizable underlying conditions will probably start… late March, early April. Once you get into April, it’s probably full on those people, ”Fauci told CNN. “The sooner you vaccinate the vast majority of the country, the faster you will have that umbrella of herd immunity that will be so, so important to reduce the level of the virus.”
The first vaccine shipments are expected to be divided among states and agencies, including the Department of Defense. That first effort will fall a long way from protecting high-priority groups like healthcare workers, according to a Reuters analysis.
Writing for Dispatch, a conservative magazine, Marty Makary, a Johns Hopkins professor, said the FDA must “adopt a sense of urgency.”
“We had Operation Warp Speed in vaccine development, but Operation Turtle Speed in reviewing the results,” he wrote.
Experts have also cautioned that much is still unknown about the vaccine candidates from Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca, including the duration of immunity, possible long-term side effects, and variation across ages, races, and ethnicities.
On Thursday, Dr. William Moss, executive director of the International Center for Vaccine Access at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, said it would probably take a year or so to understand what vaccines can do.
“It will be important to continue to monitor the people who receive the vaccine,” he said. “Other vaccines … may be even better.”
