PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — To date, more than 550,000 Americans have died from COVID-19. Health officials are again sounding the alarm as infections continue to rise in much of the country. They say a fourth wave isn’t on the horizon — it is already here.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, infections are going up in 27 states, encompassing much of the Northeast — including Pennsylvania and New Jersey — and the upper Midwest.
“We are currently in this country at 61,000 new infections a day — a 13% increase from last week at this time,” CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said Tuesday at the opening of a new vaccination clinic in Boston.
Walensky elaborated on her dire warning on Monday, when she made a passionate plea for the country to stay vigilant.
“When I said I had a feeling of impending doom, it is sort of this feeling I had, surge after surge, serving on the front lines at Massachusetts General Hospital and recognizing that it is preventable,” she said, adding that Americans can’t lose sight of masking, distancing and other measures necessary to slow the spread of the virus as the country ramps up its vaccination campaign.
Walensky spoke to governors and urged those who lifted mask mandates to reinstate them.
As of Wednesday morning, the CDC said more than 147 million doses have been given in the U.S., and 53.4 million Americans, or 16% of the population, have been fully vaccinated. Nearly half of those who are 65 and above have also been fully vaccinated.
However, variants of the coronavirus are still a threat.
“The more virus that you have and the more variants that are circulating, there’s always the risk of more mutations, and those mutations could potentially pose a risk against the effectiveness of these vaccines,” Walensky said. “Which is why we really are trying to, as we’re scaling up vaccination, to decrease the amount of circulating virus.”
Of particular concern is the B.1.1.7 variant, which was first reported in the United Kingdom. It is currently circulating in France, where officials say there are roughly 5,000 COVID-19 patients in intensive care — the highest number since April of last year.
“This is a virus that’s 70% to 100% more infectious than the previous COVID-19 viruses,” Dr. Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, said to CBS This Morning on Tuesday.
“It’s more than 50% to 60% likely to cause more severe disease,” he continued. “Given that we have still over 50% of our population (in the U.S.) that are still susceptible to this virus, this is a real challenge.”