US COVID DEATHS CAME THAN PREVIOUSLY UPDATE

Expert: Testing requirements won't help control COVID-19 variant spread Fauci estimates about 70% to 85% of the population needs to get vaccinated against COVID-19 for the country to achieve herd immunity. It likely won't be until summer that vaccines are widely available and begin to make a meaningful impact on the pandemic's course, officials have said. 'We need to be prepared for the fact that it is going to be a slow rollout in many places and that it will not change our behaviors or necessarily the trajectory of the pandemic in this country in the short term,' Choo said.Ĭhoo's words echo a number of other experts who have warned the American public not to let their guard down as vaccinations begin and to continue following public health measures including wearing masks, social distancing, avoiding crowds and gatherings, and regularly washing their hands. there (are) just so many factors at this stage,' Choo said. 'At every step, there's complexity and there's possibility for delay, whether it's individual state planning, allocation, training, supply of vaccine, storage.

US COVID DEATHS CAME THAN PREVIOUSLY UPDATE

RELATED: Health care workers share update after receiving Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine Esther Choo, a professor of emergency medicine at Oregon Health + Science University, explained that vaccine distribution is 'just a very complicated thing.' 'I'm pretty confident that as we gain more and more momentum, as we transition from December to January and then February to March, I believe we will catch up with the projection,' he said.ĭr. RELATED: 'Mom's worth it': US holiday travel surges despite COVID-19 outbreakĪsked about the apparent slow rollout of vaccines, Fauci told CNN Sunday that large, comprehensive vaccine programs with a new vaccine start slow before gaining momentum. And while there are lags in data reporting, federal officials had previously said they would vaccinate 20 million people by the end of the year. Those numbers now include both the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines. Nearly 2 million COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered in the US, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and more than 9.5 million doses have been distributed.

And remember, vaccines are around the corner.' Vaccine roll-out slow in some places, expert says 'People can still save the lives of their loved ones by practicing that social distancing and masks.

Peter Hotez, an infectious disease specialist at the Baylor College of Medicine.

'The projections are just nightmarish,' said Dr. Another 193,000 could lose their lives over the next two months, according to predictions from the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. Nearly 332,000 Americans have died of COVID-19. On Saturday, the country recorded its fifth-highest number of hospitalizations - with more than 117,300 COVID-19 patients nationwide, according to the COVID Tracking Project. More than 616,000 were screened on Christmas Day alone, and hundreds of thousands more traveled in the days leading up to the holiday.ĬOVID-19 hospitalization numbers across the US are already at record-high levels. More than 1.1 million people were screened at airports on Saturday, according to the TSA, marking the third busiest day for US air travel since March. RELATED: Unemployment benefits expire for millions as government shutdown looms The nation's top infectious disease expert described the potential rise in cases as a 'surge upon a surge,' telling CNN's Dana Bash, 'If you look at the slope, the incline of cases that we've experienced as we've gone into the late fall and soon to be early winter, it is really quite troubling.' Anthony Fauci said on CNN's 'State of the Union' Sunday morning, pointing to holiday travel and private gatherings taking place despite the advice of health experts. 'We very well might see a post-seasonal - in the sense of Christmas, New Years - surge,' Dr. But experts continue to warn that while the end is in sight, the pandemic is not over and another surge stemming from the Christmas holiday could be on its way. The authorization of two COVID-19 vaccines earlier in December offered some hope of a light at the end of the tunnel. RELATED: Haircut leads to COVID death of couple days before Christmas after short family visit The grim death toll comes on the heels of several brutal months for the US, with COVID-19 ravaging communities from coast to coast, crippling hospital systems and prompting new widespread restrictions. In comparison, the entire month of November saw about 36,964 deaths, CNN reported. African American and Latinx communities in Chicago hit harder by COVID-19 than other neighborhoods.ĭecember has been the nation's deadliest month since the COVID-19 pandemic's start - with more than 63,000 Americans lost to the virus in the past 26 days.

Us covid deaths came than previously