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(CNN) – Coronavirus vaccines will provide some light at the end of the tunnel, but alone will not spell the end of COVID-19, a senior health official said Friday.
“I would like to say that vaccines do not equal zero Covid,” said Dr. Michael Ryan, executive director of the Health Emergencies Program at the World Health Organization. “Vaccines and vaccination will add an important, important and powerful tool to the set of tools that we have.
“But by themselves they won’t do the job.”
The United States is experiencing the worst days of the pandemic and had its highest day of new cases (217,664) and deaths (2,879) on Thursday, according to Johns Hopkins.
On Friday, there were 101,276 people hospitalized with Covid-19, breaking the previous record set on Thursday, according to the Covid Tracking Project. This is the third day in a row that the United States has remained above 100,000 current hospitalizations.
In the United States there have been more than 14.3 million cases and more than 278,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University.
For months, health experts have said that to avoid the spread of the virus, people should stay away from others, wash their hands, and wear masks. As they learned more about this coronavirus and the disease it causes, COVID-19, officials have modified their recommendations.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reinforced its guide to face coverings on Friday, saying that wearing a mask is critical and that sometimes people should even wear them at home.
“Because the increased risk of transmission has been documented among the household contacts of Covid-19 patients, keeping the home safe requires physical distancing, the use of the other public health strategies outlined here, and, in particular, the use of consistent and correct use of masks at home and in some circumstances within the home) to prevent introduction and transmission (of the virus), “said the CDC.
The CDC also said that while face coverings should be worn to reduce possible transmission of the virus, they can also provide some protection to the person wearing them.
Authorities warned that coronavirus cases will increase during the winter as more people stay indoors and gather for the holidays.
Cases, hospitalizations and deaths are at an all-time high, but vaccines will help once they’re licensed.
States are now preparing to roll out vaccines for frontline healthcare workers and people in long-term care facilities. Ohio was one of the states that unveiled its plan on Friday.
“During Phase 1, vaccine supplies will be limited and Ohio will focus on vaccinating those who wish to be vaccinated in the critical Phase 1A groups,” according to a news release from Ohio Governor Mike DeWine’s office.
Ohio expects to receive 660,000 doses before the end of December.
In New Jersey, where hospitals are preparing to receive 76,000 doses of the vaccine in the first shipment, Gov. Phil Murphy called the vaccine distribution a “game changer.” But he warned New Jerseyans not to expect restrictions to be lifted anytime soon.
“Covid is not going away simply because there are doses of vaccine in a freezer waiting to be distributed,” Murphy told reporters.
The vaccine provides full immunity to the virus one week after the second dose
One of the questions people have about the vaccine is how long it will take for the vaccine to give immunity to the virus.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said that full immunity to the virus develops from a week to 10 days after people receive the second of two doses of a vaccine.
“Well, so the two vaccines that we are talking about, the Moderna vaccine and the Pfizer vaccine, are what is called a prime booster, an injection followed in (three or four) weeks by another injection,” Fauci told Dr. Sanjay Gupta and Anderson Cooper on Friday during CNN’s Coronavirus Town Hall.
People begin to develop immunity after the first dose of the vaccine, Fauci said, but it is not optimal. “After the second dose, you get optimal immunity seven to 10 days after the second dose,” he said.
Vaccines appear to provide protection that is at least as strong, if not stronger, than the immunity found in a person who has had COVID-19.
“If you look at the vaccine, the level and quality of the neutralizing antibodies was comparable and even better than what you see in the convalescent plasma of people who were actually infected and developed an immune response,” he said. “It is at least as good as the response associated with natural infection.”
Vaccine advisers from the US Food and Drug Administration will meet next Thursday to consider Pfizer’s emergency use authorization request, and on December 17 for Moderna.
Health systems under stress
Top health officials say the surge in cases will be followed by more hospitalizations that could cripple health care systems across the country. Hospitals and experts across the United States are raising the alarm.
Marvin O’Quinn, president and chief operating officer of CommonSpirit Health, which runs hospitals in 21 states, told CNN that all of its hospitals are receiving more patients.
“We now have approximately 2,100 positive cases in our hospitals. That is an increase of almost 70% from November 11,” O’Quinn said. “We are seeing about 70 to 100 new cases every day.”
In Pennsylvania, just under 5,000 people are hospitalized with COVID-19, and two parts of the state are drawing ever closer to a staff shortage, Health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine said Thursday.
“It is very important to remember that we all need to be vigilant, that we all have a role to play in what is happening in hospitals right now,” Levine said. “You may not need hospital care at this time; you may not have a loved one in the hospital at this time. But what is happening in our hospitals has a direct impact on you.”
In the past two months, the positivity rate in Miami-Dade County, Florida, has soared 91%, county medical director Peter Paige said Friday. Hospitalizations increased 139%.
Maryland health officials reported 3,792 new cases of COVID-19 on Friday, breaking the state’s previous record for daily cases, the Department of Health said.
This is the first time Maryland has surpassed 3,000 cases in one day, CNN’s tally shows.
Increasing acceptance of masks, vaccines.
The majority of American adults (72%) say it bothers them that people in public do not wear masks, according to a survey by the Pew Research Center. Far fewer adults (28%) say it bothers them at least a little when stores require customers to wear masks for service.
The results showed that 87% say they have worn a mask or that it covers their face “all or most of the time” in stores and businesses in the last month. That includes 91% of Democrats and 81% of Republicans.
Pew also reported that 60% of those surveyed now say that if a COVID-19 vaccine were available today, they would take it.
Among those who are unwilling to get vaccinated, about half of them, or 18% of American adults, say they may decide to get vaccinated once more information is available, but 21% of American adults are “quite sure “there will be more information. don’t change your mind.
The survey was conducted between November 18 and 29 and included 12,648 respondents.
The US Department of Health and Human Services launched its national ad campaign to promote awareness of upcoming vaccines with a modest $ 150,000 ad purchase on YouTube.
New strict measures
California hospitals are treating more than 9,900 patients with COVID-19, the highest level to date, according to data from the state Department of Health. More than 2,200 of those patients are in intensive care units, which is also the highest number since the start of the pandemic.
The figure comes as Governor Gavin Newsom announced a strict regional stay-at-home order. The order will go into effect 48 hours after UCI capacity drops below 15% in one of the five regions, Northern California, the Bay Area, Greater Sacramento, the San Joaquin Valley or the southern California.
But six Bay Area governments are not waiting.
“It takes several weeks for the new restrictions to delay the increase in hospitalizations and waiting until only 15% of the ICU beds in a region are available is too late,” said Dr Tomás Aragon, health officer from San Francisco. “Many heavily affected parts of our region already have less than 15% of ICU beds available, and now is the time to act.”
The order goes into effect Sunday in the combined city and county of San Francisco, the city of Berkeley and Contra Costa and Santa Clara counties, followed by Alameda County on Monday and Marin County on Tuesday. The orders affect approximately 6 million people.
California added 22,018 new Covid-19 cases on Friday, surpassing the state’s all-time high for daily positives that was set earlier this week. The total number of confirmed cases is 1.2 million.
Delaware Gov. John Carney announced a stay-at-home advisory Thursday, telling residents to avoid indoor gatherings with people outside their homes from Dec. 14 through Jan. 11. The state will also require residents to wear cloth face covers every time they are indoors. with someone who is not at home, the governor’s office said.
“A vaccine is on the way, but make no mistake, we are facing the most difficult months of this crisis,” the governor said in a statement. “I know we are all tired of COVID-19, but he is not tired of us.”
CNN’s Melissa Alonso, Jay Croft, Andrea Diaz, Maggie Fox, Jacqueline Howard, Jon Passantino, Rebekah Riess, Amanda Sealy, Ganesh Setty, Anna Sturla, and Amanda Watts contributed to this report.
This story was first published on CNN.com “Vaccines Will Not Kill Covid, So Keep Wearing Your Mask, Says Senior Health Official”
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