Amid deadliest month, U.S. caseloads decline
PROVIDENCE, R.I. — The deadliest month yet of the coronavirus outbreak in the U.S. drew to a close with signs of progress as covid-19 cases and hospitalizations drop while vaccinations are picking up speed.
The U.S. death toll has climbed past 443,000, with more than 95,000 lives lost in January alone. Deaths are running at about 3,150 per day on average, down by about 200 from their peak in mid-January.
But as the calendar turned to February, the number of Americans in the hospital with covid-19 fell below 100,000 for the first time in two months. New cases of infection are averaging about 148,000 per day, falling from almost a quarter-million in mid-January. And cases are trending downward in all 50 states.
Concerns remain, however, as to whether the nation can stay ahead of the fast-spreading mutations of the virus.
“While the recent decline in cases and hospital admissions are encouraging, they are counterbalanced by the stark reality that in January
we recorded the highest number of covid-19 deaths in any month since the pandemic began,” said Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Three mutated variants of the virus from Britain, South Africa and Brazil have been detected in the U.S. The mutation first detected in Britain spreads more easily and is believed to be deadlier, but the South Africa strain is prompting even more concern because of early indications that vaccines may not be as protective against it.
The more the virus spreads, the more opportunities it has to mutate.
Walensky urged Americans to get vaccinated as soon as shots become available to them, and stressed it’s no time to relax basic precautions such as wearing masks.
Dr. Philip Landrigan, an epidemiologist at Boston College, said vaccines are a factor in the sharp drop in cases but are not the primary cause. Instead, he said, the crisis has become increasingly “depoliticized” in recent weeks as more people come to grips with the threat and how they can help slow the spread of the virus.
“I don’t think you can underestimate the importance of this culture change. I think it’s critically important,” he said.
After a slow start, the vaccination drive that began in mid-December is picking up the pace. More than 32.2 million doses have been administered in the U.S., according to the CDC. That is up from 16.5 million on the day President Joe Biden took office, Jan. 20.
The number of shots dispensed in the week and a half since Biden’s inauguration has been running at around 1.3 million per day on average, well over the president’s oft-stated goal of 1 million per day. More than 5.9 million Americans have received the required two doses, the CDC said.
However, the CDC reported Monday that many nursing home workers are not getting their shots when doses are first offered.
The CDC looked at more than 11,000 nursing homes and skilled nursing facilities that had at least one vaccination clinic between the middle of December and the middle of January. The researchers found that while 78% of residents got at least one shot, only 37.5% of staff members did.
Data previously showed that people who work in nursing homes and longterm care facilities get flu vaccines at lower rates than other health-care workers. Surveys suggest that longterm care workers are skeptical the shots work and don’t think viruses spread easily from them to the people they care for.
The problem was discussed last week during a meeting of an expert panel that advises the CDC on vaccine policy. The CDC’s Dr. Amanda Cohn said more staffers get vaccinated when a second or third clinic is held at a home.
“Continuing to capture those staff who did not accept vaccine early will be really important as we try to eliminate outbreaks and protect both staff and residents in long-term care facilities,” Cohn said.
The government tasked CVS and Walgreens with administering the shots to long-term care homes in nearly every state. Each
vaccine requires two shots a few weeks apart, and the two drugstore chains say they have wrapped up first-dose clinics in nursing homes. They plan three visits to each location.
The CDC released a second report Monday that offered a larger national look at who has been getting the vaccine.
The CDC study found that of the people who got at least one shot between mid-December and mid-January, 63% were women and 55% were 50 or older. It also found 60% were white, 11.5% Hispanic, 6% Asian, 5% Black, 2% American Indian/ Alaska Native, and most of the others multiracial.
RACIAL DISPARITY
Black and Hispanic New York City residents are receiving covid-19 vaccines at far lower rates than white or Asian New Yorkers, Mayor Bill de Blasio acknowledged Sunday as he vowed to continue expanding access to the shots in communities that have been ravaged by the virus.
The data released by the city’s health department shows that 48% of the New York City residents who have gotten at least one vaccine dose are white, a figure that far exceeds the roughly one-third of the city’s population that is non-Hispanic white.
The vaccine numbers are incomplete because about 40% of people who have been vaccinated in the city haven’t provided demographic information. Still, the figures mirror vaccination data from other cities and states, with Black people in all locations getting inoculated at levels below their share of the population.
Just 11% of vaccine doses administered to New York City residents went to Black people and 15% to Hispanics, although Black and Hispanic New Yorkers make up 24% and 29% of the city’s population, respectively. The percentage of vaccine doses that went to Asians, 15%, is about the same as their proportion of the city’s population, 14%.
“Clearly, we do see a profound disparity that needs to be addressed aggressively and creatively,” de Blasio said in a conference call with reporters. “We’ve got a profound problem of distrust and hesitancy, particularly in communities of color.”
De Blasio said that measures intended to boost vaccination rates in communities of color will include streamlining the cumbersome application process and translating the materials into additional languages.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the statewide breakdown of who has been vaccinated will be released in the coming days, but he expects those numbers to show racial disparities as well.
“You’re going to see the Black population with the highest hesitance, then Latino, then Asian, then white,” Cuomo said in a separate conference call.
Cuomo said the state plans to advertise the vaccine with a campaign directed specifically at Black New Yorkers.
HOME TEST COMING
Additionally, the White House announced plans Monday to buy 8.5 million rapid coronavirus tests that can be taken at home without a prescription and that yield immediate results.
The $231.8 million contract will allow the Australian company Ellume, which manufactures the tests, to quickly scale up its production and to create a factory in the United States that will be able to produce 19 million tests per month.
For the past year, many experts have called for the development of cheap, rapid home tests as a way to catch and stop viral transmission. Because so much of the transmission occurs among people showing no symptoms, giving Americans an inexpensive way to test themselves regularly would be a breakthrough. But even as testing technology improved, the cost and availability of such tests lagged and remained prohibitive.
Ellume’s test was the first over-the-counter, rapid coronavirus home test authorized by the Food and Drug Administration, on Dec. 15.
“The purpose of today’s announcement is to move to mass production and scale,” said Andy Slavitt, Biden’s senior adviser for covid-19 response, at a Monday news briefing.
Slavitt acknowledged that the $30 price per Ellume test — while cheaper than many of the $100-$200 tests that need to be processed by a lab — is still too high for it to be used ubiquitously by many people.
“The cost will come down only if we get to that mass production and scale,” Slavitt said, calling the new contract an initial step to solve that problem. “We know there are efforts to create even lower cost and more innovative approaches and we welcome those.”
In an interview with The Washington Post, Ellume founder and CEO Sean Parsons said he believes scaling up production will allow Ellume to reduce the test’s price. By building a manufacturing plant in the U.S., for instance, the company will no longer have to ship tests from Australia.
By the end of the year, the company’s manufacturing is expected to scale up to be able to produce more than 19 million test kits per month. At least 8.5 million tests have been promised to the U.S. government. The rest will remain in the United States but will be sold through retail stores or distributed in large-scale purchases by private companies or institutions.
“We’ve gotten a lot of interest from retailers to logistics companies wanting to protect their staff to universities and health care groups,” Parsons said.