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WASHINGTON – The flags were lowered to half mast on Monday (February 23) to mourn the half a million people who died due to Covid-19 in the United States, a staggering death toll higher than in any other country in the world.
“Today we mark a truly grim and heartbreaking milestone. 500,071 dead. More Americans have died in one year in this pandemic than in World War I, World War II and the Vietnam War combined, ”President Joe Biden said at a commemoration ceremony.
“The people we lost were extraordinary. They spanned generations. Born in the United States, immigrated to the United States. But so many of them took their last breath alone in America. As a nation, we cannot accept such a cruel fate, ”he said in a grim evening speech, before lighting candles at the White House and observing a moment of silence.
The United States has 20 percent of all reported Covid-19 deaths in the world, even though it represents only 4.25 percent of the world’s population.
Monday’s grim milestone underscored the magnitude of the challenge the United States still faces in defeating the pandemic, even as the number of infections, hospitalizations and deaths has been declining for weeks after the November surge.
The trends are promising. The current seven-day average of 66,000 cases per day is 74 percent lower than the seven-day high average on January 11, limiting five weeks of steady decline. This level is similar to last summer’s peak, said the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Rochelle Walensky, in a briefing on Monday.
The seven-day average of new hospital admissions of 6,500 a day was a 60 percent decrease from the January 9 peak, and the lowest since last fall, he added.
The number of reported deaths also continues to decline and is now the lowest since early December. The seven-day average is 1,900 deaths, 39 percent less than the previous week, Dr. Walensky said.
Former CDC director Tom Frieden, who now heads the global public health organization Resolve to Save Lives, said: “Covid declines are steep, sustained and nationwide. Cases decrease first, then hospitalizations and then deaths. “
He gave four main reasons for the decline: less travel, less mixing of people indoors, more consistent mask use, and increased immunity against infections and vaccines. About 12 percent of the United States population has received at least one dose of the Covid-19 vaccine.
“Better is not good, and safer is not safe,” wrote Dr. Frieden on his weekly blog. “Although the situation has improved a lot in the last month, we are still not where we were at the end of the summer.”
Dr Walensky added: “While the pandemic is heading in the right direction, there is still a lot of work to do.”
President Joe Biden, who has been in command of the country for more than a month, has implemented mask mandates, acted to increase the supply of vaccine doses and encouraged Americans to get vaccinated.
On his second day in office, Biden ordered masks required at airports, airplanes, buses and trains, as well as on federal property, in stark contrast to his predecessor Donald Trump, who never supported such a mandate and did not consistently wear one. the same.
Alluding to Trump’s skepticism, Biden said: “We must end the politics and misinformation that has divided families, communities and the country, and has already cost too many lives.”
“It is not the Democrats and Republicans who are dying from the virus. They are our compatriots ”, he added.
The president’s chief medical adviser, Anthony Fauci, who also served under Trump’s leadership, said in an interview with Reuters that political differences and “intense division in society” contributed to the staggering death toll, as well as to mixed signals from the White House.
Biden has also sped up the launch of the vaccine. Last Tuesday (February 16), the White House announced that states will begin receiving 13.5 million doses per week, up from 8.6 million doses they received weekly when he first took office.
The Biden administration also said earlier this month that it had obtained an additional 200 million doses of vaccines for July from pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and Moderna, bringing the total to 600 million, which is enough to vaccinate the US population of 300 million.
While some of these purchases could have been under contracts negotiated by the Trump administration, the Biden administration has criticized its predecessor for not ordering enough vaccines, not planning enough people to administer the vaccines, and not organizing enough vaccination sites.
Reuters reported Tuesday that Pfizer expects to ship 13 million doses of its vaccine a week to the United States in mid-March, more than double what it shipped in early February.
While the recent declines in Covid-19 cases are promising, much depends on whether Americans continue to wear masks and socially distance themselves, particularly with the spread of Covid-19 variants, experts said. Biden urged Americans to stay vigilant, distance themselves socially, wear masks and get vaccinated.
“That this is not a story of how much we fell, but of how much we rose again. We can do this, ”he said.
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