According to a database from the New York Times, many of the states that have seen the worst coronavirus outbreaks recently have seen significant decreases in both new cases and hospitalizations over the past two weeks.
For example, in Michigan, which has had one of the steepest declines in the country, the average number of daily cases fell 45 percent and hospital admissions fell 32 percent during that period as of Tuesday.
The average number of new cases in the past two weeks has decreased 30 percent in Minnesota, 38 percent in Pennsylvania, and 33 percent in Florida. In the same three states, hospital admissions are down 20 percent, 27 percent, and 11 percent.
Advances for states like Michigan, which recently began to recover from one of the worst sections of the pandemic, may suggest vaccinations are starting to curb the virus in the United States. Hospitalization dates can often lag behind case numbers for a number of reasons.
The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Rochelle Walensky testified at a Senate hearing Tuesday that, although encouraged by the achievements against the pandemic, she urged Americans to remain vigilant about the threat from the virus around the world.
Ms. Walensky said a vaccine is the fastest way to end the pandemic.
“But even with this powerful tool, while we continue to have community transmission, we must adhere to public health measures that we know will prevent the spread of this virus, mask hygiene, hand hygiene and physical distancing “, she said.
Dr. Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, said in an interview that the vaccines had been a major contributor to improving case numbers and hospitalizations, but that the virus behaved in surprising ways There remained aspects that experts had to learn more about.
As an example of the unpredictable ups and downs of the virus, Dr. Osterholm pointed to Indiana, which borders Michigan and has lower vaccination rates, but has not seen the same increase in case numbers recently as its northern neighbor.
“I don’t see any national upswing. We won’t be like India. I think the vaccine concentration has certainly helped us immensely in getting that off the table, ”said Dr. Osterholm. “But I think at the state level, where we have significant populations that need vaccination, we could still see significant activity.”
After reaching an average high of 3.38 million doses per day in mid-April, the pace of US vaccinations had slowed. Almost every state now has a spate of vaccine doses that could be quickly distributed to teenagers once the Pfizer BionTech vaccine is approved for 12-15 year olds.
President Biden is pursuing a strategy that focuses on local reach and expanded vaccine access to meet his goal of at least partially vaccinating 70 percent of Americans by Independence Day.
“When it’s available, when it’s close by, when it’s convenient, people get vaccinated,” Biden said at the White House on Wednesday, highlighting initiatives like the availability of walk-ins and free Uber and Lyft trips to vaccination sites .
The vaccination relief could appeal to the 30 million or so Americans who say they’ll get the shot but have not yet done so for a myriad of reasons. Local officials and private companies are also offering a wide range of different incentives, such as free subway rides, beer, baseball tickets, and cash withdrawals, to make Americans reluctant to get vaccinated.
The changes in the virus’ trajectory in the United States are due to other regions of the world, particularly India and Southeast Asia, being hit hard. A number of variants are also spreading around the world, and scientists told a US Congressional panel on Wednesday that variants will pose an ongoing threat to the nation.
Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO director general, said Monday that the world is seeing a plateau in known cases, “but it’s an unacceptably high plateau, with more than 5.4 million cases and nearly 90,000 deaths in the past week.”
He continued, “Any decline is welcome, but we’ve been here before. Over the past year, many countries have seen a downward trend in cases and deaths, public health and society policies too quickly eased, and individuals have disappointed their vigilance only for these hard-won gains are being lost. “
Bryan Pietsch contributed to the reporting.
