COVID-19 cases were down in the U.S. last week and recent approvals for booster shots and child vaccines bring hope that the pandemic could finally be waning.
However, a top health official in the U.K. – where the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency this week approved an oral antiviral treatment for COVID-19 – said the worst days of the pandemic could still be yet to come, at least in England.
“Too many people believe that this pandemic is now over,” Chief Medical Officer for England Jonathan Van-Tam said this week. “I personally feel there are some hard months to come in the winter and it is not over.”
In the U.S., the average daily number of reported cases as of Oct. 28 was 68,793, down more than 7 percent compared to the previous week. In the U.K., 37,269 daily cases were reported as of Thursday, down a little less than 7 percent compared to the previous week.
According to the BBC, Van Tam believes that people’s behavior will determine how bad the pandemic becomes this winter. He said precautions such as mask wearing should be continued to help keep the virus at bay.
Van Tam also said that vaccinations will also determine the direction of the pandemic in the coming months.
As of Oct. 28, 417.8 million vaccine doses had been administered in the U.S. to 221.3 million people, or 66.7 percent of the population. About 191.2 million people, or 57.6 percent of the population, have been fully vaccinated and more than 15 million people had received booster doses of the vaccine.
This week, COVID-19 vaccines also became available for the approximately 28 million children age 5 to 11 in the U.S.
In the U.K., 87.1 percent of the population, around 50 million people, have received at least dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 79.6 percent, close to 46 million people, are fully vaccinated. Around 9 million people, or 15.7 percent of the population, has received a booster dose.
Van-Tam said that while cases in the U.K. appeared to have stabilized, they were still high, and above most of Europe. He also said deaths were rising and infections are impacting older age groups.
Apart from urging people to get COVID-19 vaccines, Van Tam also stressed the importance of flu vaccine as winter draws near. Strict COVID-19 mitigation measures last year prevented other respiratory infections such as the flu from spreading, but most have been relaxed this year.
While Van Tam has a gloomy outlook for pandemic conditions over the winter months, he said that things should be better by the spring.
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