More than 97,000 patients remain hospitalized with the virus, far from the country’s maximum of 132,400 on January 6. The last time that number fell below 100,000 was on December 1st.
“Right now it’s the worst of all possible worlds. It’s winter. It’s cold, people are together more, there are still a critical number of people in the United States who don’t wear masks and who don’t have social distances.” Paul Offit, a member of the FDA’s vaccine advisory committee, told CNN Saturday. “I think the next six weeks or two months will be tough. I think we could have 100,000 and 150,000 dead.”
29.5 million doses administered
But there are good reasons for hope.
Obstructed by assignment and distribution problems for weeks, the numbers are lower than experts expected them to be in the United States. But health and state officials expect vaccinations to increase in the coming months.
In New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office said Saturday morning that the state had administered 91 percent of the first doses of vaccine it received from the federal government and urged more supply.
“New York’s large distribution network is capable of handling more than 100,000 vaccines a day, but to do that we really need more doses from the federal government,” Cuomo said in a statement.
The governor previously announced that the state will receive 16% more doses over the next three weeks. In his statement Saturday, Cuomo said that while the bulge is a “welcome increase, the reality is that we simply need more supply.”
In Washington state, health officials announced that more than 10,000 people had been vaccinated at the state’s mass vaccination sites with the help of the state National Guard and other partners.
“The goal of mass vaccination sites is to increase access to the vaccine statewide, ensure our plans are equitable, and protect those most at risk,” a state health department statement said. of Washington.
Traffic authorities implement CDC guidelines
In the meantime, an order issued by the CDC that forces people to wear masks while using any form of public transportation in the U.S. will go into effect Monday night.
The agency said public transport operators should do their utmost to enforce the mandate, including only the embarkation of those wearing masks and the disembarkation of passengers who refuse to comply.
Traffic authorities in several major U.S. cities and states, including New York, New Jersey, Washington, DC, San Francisco, Chicago and Atlanta, told CNN they were already complying.
In Washington, DC, the Washington Metropolitan Area Traffic Authority told CNN that “facial coverage has been needed on Metro since May.”
“We welcome any policy that further promotes compliance in Metro and in all public spaces to combat the spread of the virus and welcome the ability of TSA and other federal authorities to enforce this mandate when appropriate,” he said. a spokesman.
In California, a high-traffic spokesman for the Bay Area said the Bay Area public transportation system has a mandate that covers it from April.
And in Atlanta, a spokesman said the Atlanta Metropolitan Fast Traffic Authority began requiring masks in July.
Trying to understand more about the virus
And now more than a year since the world first learned about the virus, a team of researchers from the World Health Organization examining the origins of the pandemic will head to a wholesale seafood market on Sunday. in Wuhan, China, the market believed to be where the first Covid-19 infections were detected.
A team of experts was released Thursday from a 40-week quarantine, a member told CNN.
CNN High Spells, Sandi Sidhu, Lauren Mascarenhas, Laura Ly, Amanda Watts and Hollie Silverman contributed to this report.