COVID-19 cases are dropping in US, but not because of vaccinations
Since the holiday season, the number of deaths is still concerningly high but there is a decrease in COVID-19 hospitalizations
COVID-19 cases are decreasing but the vaccine is not the driving factor, according to health experts.
They are attributing shrinking virus cases to Americans adhering to COVID-19 restrictions. They are reporting that mask-wearing, social distancing and travel reduction are the main contributing factors, not the vaccine, per CNN.
“It’s encouraging to see these trends coming down, but they’re coming down from an extraordinarily high place,” said CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky on Sunday to NBC.
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“If we want to get our children back to school, and I believe we all do, it all depends on how much community spread is out there.”
Since the holiday season, the number of deaths is still concerningly high but there is a decrease in COVID-19 hospitalizations.
“It’s what we’re doing right: staying apart, wearing masks, not traveling, not mixing with others indoors,” said Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The seven-day average of new coronavirus cases is 90,416, down from the 250,000 new case average we saw in early January, per Johns Hopkins University.
The record high of COVID-19 infections was 132,447 on Jan. 6, but as of Sunday, just 67,023 were hospitalized with the infection, per COVID Tracking Project.
But despite the decline as a country we have a way to go. An average of 3,000 daily are still losing their lives to the virus.
At this point, more than 14 million Americans have taken both doses of the vaccine but it does take a few weeks to become effective and that number only represents about 4 % of the population.
Also, new variants of the virus are spreading so Americans are urged to still take precautions.
“We’ve had three surges. Whether or not we have a fourth surge is up to us,” said Frieden.
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“And the stakes couldn’t be higher — not only in the number of people who could die in the fourth surge, but also in the risk that even more dangerous variants will emerge if there’s more uncontrolled spread.”
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