But Dr. Anthony Fauci said there should be no positive increase “if we do it right.”
There are certain simple things that are essential, he told CNN on Tuesday. “We need to mask the school system in addition to surrounding children with vaccinated people,” said the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. “That’s the solution.”
Fauci stressed that masks and vaccines in schools are crucial, although some local leaders are backing down against such measures.
Ahead of the speech, data from the Gallup poll showed on Tuesday that there are now more Americans who disagree that Biden and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have announced an action plan. clear in response to Covid-19.
The discourse also comes when the impact of the pandemic on schools becomes more evident.
Children now account for 26.8% of weekly cases of Covid-19, according to new data released on Tuesday. For two weeks, from Aug. 19 to Sept. 2, there was a 10 percent increase in the cumulative number of Covid-19 cases in children since the start of the pandemic, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics.
In Miami-Dade County public schools, 13 school employees have died from Covid-19 since Aug. 16, the school district and the local teachers’ union told CNN. The 13 teachers, a security monitor, a cafeteria worker and seven school bus drivers had no vaccine, they said.
Carvalho said the 13 individuals who died were African American and were not vaccinated, according to their families.
Since vaccine warrants are illegal in Florida, Carvalho said the best thing he can do is offer incentives for teachers to get fully vaccinated, including a $ 275 salary to any employee who proves their vaccination.
Reinforcements for hospitals
Delayed vaccination rates and the growing number of cases keep up the pressure on health care systems in many states.
In Kentucky, hospitals are facing a critical shortage of staff and are being pushed to the edge of ICU beds, Gov. Andy Beshear said Tuesday, forcing some surgery rooms to close to create ICU centers and more beds to care for the influx of patients with Covid-19.
The state has intervened to help by providing evidence of Covid-19 through external providers that are established outside of hospitals, freeing staff from hospital emergencies and clinicians to prioritize other health needs for the community, Beshear said.
The governor said he also requested FEMA strike equipment and that a nurse strike team has been installed at St. Louis Regional Medical Center. Claire, who has been overwhelmed by treating the influx of Covid-19 patients.
Less than half of Kentucky’s population is fully vaccinated against the virus, according to CDC data.
There are also reinforcements for health care workers treating Covid-19 patients in Idaho, Arkansas and Alabama.
Each state will get a team of 20 people from the U.S. Army (ARNORTH) that includes nurses, respiratory therapists and doctors. There are already six teams deployed, with three teams in Louisiana, two in Mississippi and one in Alabama.
“This is the first time the Department of Defense’s medical resources have been deployed to support both Idaho and Arkansas during the pandemic,” ARNORTH Commander-in-Chief Laura J. Richardson said in the statement. “We are proud to be called upon to support our local, state and federal partners, in Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi, in this government-wide response.”
The launch of reinforcement shots may be in late September
Experts have stressed that the best protection against hospitalizations is vaccination.
Data from local health departments in Utah, Virginia and King County Seattle suggest that unvaccinated people are at least four times – and up to nine times – more likely than vaccinated people to test positive for Covid-19, and that the gap has widened in recent weeks.
Approximately 62.5% of the total U.S. population has received at least one dose of the Covid-19 vaccine and 53.2% are fully vaccinated, according to CDC data. These numbers are not yet where experts say they should be to protect most Americans.
The White House is expected to begin its reinforcement plan the week of Sept. 20, and by then, up to 5.2 million people could be eligible to receive their third dose.
The schedule expects residents to get the third dose eight months after receiving the second of two Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna mRNA vaccines, although the timing could fluctuate.
On Sunday, for example, Fauci predicted that Moderna could deploy its booster dose later than Pfizer.
Proponents say there are no problems with the first two doses, Fauci said Tuesday. Rather, the third dose can only be part of a complete vaccine regimen.
“It could be two doses for a J&J, but for mRNA, we know from studies that are already underway in Israel, that when the degree of protection against infection and even serious disease is reduced to a certain level precarious, when given the person who raises the third drastically increases the level of protection.Even more than before the increase increases and exceeds the level of protection, “Fauci said.
CNN’s Jacqueline Howard, Virginia Langmaid, Kaitlan Collins, Elizabeth Stuart, Carma Hassan and Leslie Perrot and Deidre McPhillips contributed to this report.