(CNN) — U.S has exceeded 4.2 million infections and 148,000 deaths Since the pandemic began, a leading expert says thousands of more Americans could lose their lives in the coming months.
“If you look at the deaths that are happening right now, about 1,000 a day, unless we take care of this and suppress it, we will have more suffering and more death,” said Dr. Anthony Fauci, the leading infectious disease expert. from the country. “That is the reason why, as I have said many, many times, there are things we can do right now in the absence of a vaccine that can help us,” he added.
While there is still no guarantee that the vaccines being developed will be effective, at least one vaccine trial in the US has entered its third phase. Meanwhile, health officials are urging states to implement stricter measures after weeks of sudden increases in new cases after reopens that started mainly in May. Nationwide, there have been more than 1,000 deaths on five separate days in the past week. And in hospitals in multiple states, doctors report that there are more incoming patients and intensive care units (ICUs) beyond capacity.
Although the president Donald Trump said Monday that some governors should be quicker to reopen their states, the response coordinator for the coronavirus of the White House, Dr. Deborah Birx, said over the weekend that there are states that show a worrying increase in positivity rates and new cases. Those states include Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia. Health experts, he said, recommend that “100% of people” wear face masks in all closed public places and that indoor and social gatherings be limited to less than 10 people.
In the U.S., at least 27 states paused or rolled back those reopening plans and imposed new restrictions. More than 40 states have some form of mask wear requirement.
In some places, the efforts seem to be working. In states like Arizona, Texas and Florida, which reopened without effective security protocols and saw a rapid spread of cases since June, new cases have recently flattened or slightly decreased. But that doesn’t mean they’re out of the woods just yet, and it’s still too early to say how long the trend will last.
Measures against social gatherings
Birx said that among the states officials are tracking, there appears to be a pattern of infection “at home” that begins with young people, generally under the age of 30. Those residents, who are generally asymptomatic, then pass the virus on to their parents who then pass it on to other older residents, she said.
In Mississippi, about 80% of coronavirus patients surveyed said they had attended a social gathering, including funerals and birthday parties, where people did not adhere to social estrangement. And in New Jersey, health officials said they have seen multiple outbreaks stemming from youth gatherings.
To stop these infections, states have cracked down on congregations, such as bars, and have pleaded with younger groups to pay attention to guidelines that include wearing masks and social distancing.
In Columbus, Ohio, the city council passed legislation that would require bars and restaurants to close at 10 p.m. every night beginning Tuesday.
“Our city, like many others across the country, is seeing an increase in covid-19 cases and there is clear evidence of community spread, especially in closed places where groups are gathering,” said Mayor Andrew Ginther. it’s a statement. “We are also seeing a clear increase among younger people and we know that bars and nightclubs have been the source of outbreaks at the local level.”
In Kentucky, the governor also imposed new restrictions on restaurants, ordered bars to be closed for the next two weeks, and recommended that schools postpone education in person until the end of August.
“It is time to do what we have to do, given the stage we are at, to control this virus,” said the governor. “And I know that questions ended up coming up about ‘why didn’t you take this step four weeks ago or six weeks ago?’ Listen, this virus doesn’t care about our itineraries. ”
New York and Miami Issue Hundreds of Coronavirus-Related Citations
Despite the new restrictions, some local leaders have voiced opposition to the mandates and others, such as sheriffs, have said they will not enforce the rules.
But in Miami and New York, officials have doubled their stakes on enforcing the rules.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said Monday that the state had issued at least 132 fines over the weekend to bars and restaurants for failing to follow coronavirus-related regulations. Most of them were in New York City, Cuomo said.
Since the state began reopening, at least 40 stores have had their alcohol sales licenses suspended as a result of fines, and 10 of those suspensions have occurred since Friday, the governor said. Lack of compliance with social distancing policies in bars and restaurants among young people is a concern for his administration, Cuomo said.
Meanwhile, in Miami-Dade County, which has reported more cases than most states, police issued more than 300 subpoenas in 10 days to individuals and businesses that failed to comply with the local order to wear face masks.
“The growth rate (of cases) has shown a flattening since we implemented the masks in the public domain and we are following the advice of our health professionals and hospital administrators who tell us that what we have to do now is focus on it, ”Miami Mayor Francis Suarez told CNN on Sunday. “We created a special force for that and have issued hundreds of infractions over the course of the week.”
Phase 3 of the ongoing vaccine trial in the US
Officials are now taking precautions such as wearing face masks and social distancing to slow the spread of the virus, but soon the country may have more help.
Vaccine maker Moderna began its final test of a coronavirus vaccine in the United States on Monday and volunteers from dozens of sites across the country will participate in the study, Fauci said.
“There are 89 sites distributed across the country,” said Fauci. “In fact, they are widely distributed in areas where there is clearly an active infection at the moment.”
There are expected to be 30,000 adult volunteers in Phase 3 testing. The first patient received his dose at a site in Savannah, Georgia on Monday.
“I think we are going to get a good sample of the virus transmission activity that is currently taking place in the country.”
Fauci said a vaccine will likely not be widely available to people in the country until “several months” have passed in 2021.
And this part of the US trial cannot be accelerated, a vaccine expert told CNN on Monday.
“Vaccine development programs generally take 15 years on average. This vaccine development program will probably take a year and a half, ”said Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Center for Vaccine Education and professor of pediatrics at the Division of Infectious Diseases at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
“The only thing you can’t truncate, merge, or overlap is the Phase 3 trial,” said Offit. “You have to try to confirm. The Phase 3 test is confirmation and now, hopefully, they will test 10, 15, 20,000 people who will receive this vaccine, 15,000 people who will receive placebo and they will see to what extent this is really safe and they will see to what extent It is effective”.
Shelby Lin Erdman, Elizabeth Cohen, Jacqueline Howard, John Bonifield, Jamie Gumbrecht, Artemis Moshtaghian, Janine Mack, and Rebekah Riess contributed to this report.
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