On Tuesday, the U.S. top infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci said as the highly contagious Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 spreads like bushfire all over the U.S., it is likely just everybody will be exposed to the virus strain, but immunized people will still fare better.
Dr. Fauci told senior Vice-President of the CSIS (Center for Strategic and International Studies), Dr. J. Stephan Morrison, said that the new Omicron variant, with its extraordinary, unparalleled degree of transmission efficiency, will eventually find just about everybody. Dr. Morrison said that those who have been inoculated and boosted would get exposed. Moreover, maybe a lot of them will get Omicron-infected but will very possible, with some exceptions, do pretty well in not having hospital admissions and fatality.
Health officials are predicting the Covid #Omicron variant will ultimately “find just about everybody.” So some are wondering, “should we just get it just to get over it?” Dr. @fperrywilson joined Morning Express to explain why this idea is flawed. pic.twitter.com/I4fiAwPO2E
— Morning Express with Robin Meade (@MorningExp) January 12, 2022
On the other hand, people who haven’t received their initial doses are going to get the impact of the severe aspect of this. According to the U.S. CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) data, at least 1 in 5 eligible Americans – approximately 65M people – aren’t immunized against the fatal disease. Over 62 percent of the US population has been fully protected, but only 23 percent are fully immunized plus boosted.
Furthermore, Fauci’s remarks came in response to a query about whether the deadly pandemic has entered a new phase. He said that would come when there is enough immunity in the community and drugs to easily sure severe disease. They might be on the threshold of that presently.
Is now the right time for America to modify its COVID-19 strategy?
Dr. Janet Woodcock, acting Commissioner of the U.S. (Food and Drug Administration), said that while a majority of people could catch the lethal virus, the focus now should be on making certain hospitals and critical services operate. In addition, Woodcock was responding to a query from Senator Mike Braun regarding whether it is time for America to modify its COVID-19 tactics. Her declaration wasn’t a new COVID-19 assessment; however, a try to clarify the need to rank essential services as the Omicron spreads.
At a Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee hearing, Dr. Janet Woodcock said that she thinks it is tough to process what’s truly happening at present, which is that most people are going to get coronavirus disease. And what they require to do is ensure the hospitals can still function, transportation, other vital services aren’t disrupted while this materializes.
The number of Americans hospitalized with COVID hit a record high on 11th January, adding strain to healthcare systems and pushing US states toward emergency recruitment and other measures as they struggle to deal with. According to the data from the U.S. Health and Human Services Department, over 145900 Americans were in hospitals with coronavirus disease as of Jan. 11 – a figure that exceeds the previous highest (142246) from mid-January 2021 and is almost twofold what it was fourteen days before.
Source: Web
US President Vows More School COVID-19-Tests to Avert Closures
According to Johns Hopkins University (JHU) data, America averaged over 754200 new coronavirus infections daily over the last week. That is approximately threefold from last winter’s peak average (251987 on Jan. 11, 2021), and 4.5-fold the peak from the Delta-driven surge (166347 on 1st Sept.).
Moreover, JHU data shows the United States has averaged 1646 coronavirus-related deaths daily over the past week, 33 percent higher than a week before. The peak average was 3402 a day on 13th January last year. According to estimates posted on Tuesday by the CDC, the highly infectious Omicron caused 98.3 percent of new COVID-19 infections in America last week.
The President Joe Biden administration has declared it would provide more 10M COVID-19 tests monthly to schools countrywide in a bid to prevent closures due to a surge in infections fueled by the new Omicron variant.
According to the White House, it would make available 5M laboratory-based PCR tests and 5M rapid tests a month starting in January to ease supply shortages and to help safely resume following the winter break. According to the administration, the extra support will add to the nearly 10 billion dollars devoted to school-based tests approved in the COVID-19 relief law and about 130 billion dollars dedicated in that law to keep kids in school.
