U.S. virus cases, hospitalizations continue to decline steadily

In the United States, the average number of COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations per day continues to decline, indicating that possession of the Omicron variant is declining nationwide.

According to data from Johns Hopkins University, the total number of confirmed cases reported on Saturday was just over 100,000, a sharp decrease from about 800,850 on January 16th, five weeks ago.

In New York, the number of cases has decreased by more than 50% in the last two weeks.

“Of course, I think it’s Omicron’s starting to run out of infected people that is affecting the decline,” said Dr. Thomas Russo, a professor and chief of infectious diseases at the Jacobs Medical College at Buffalo University.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, COVID-19 hospitalizations have dropped from an average of 146,534 for seven days nationwide on January 20 to 80,185 for the week until February 13. COVID data tracker..

Public health experts say they expect further decline and the country’s transition from a pandemic to a more consistent and predictable “endemic”. However, many have expressed concern that the rise in vaccines in the United States is still lower than expected. This is a concern exacerbated by the lifting of the COVID-19 restriction.

Dr. William Schaffner of Vanderbilt University School of Medicine said on Sunday that the decline in cases and hospitalizations is encouraging.He agreed that it probably has something to do with it Herd immunity..

“Omicron coins have two sides,” he said. “The bad thing is that it can spread to many people and make them mildly ill. The good thing is that it can spread to many people and make them mildly ill. That is. Immunity. “

But Schaffner said it was too early to “raise the flag of the mission achieved.” As a public health expert, he said it would be more comfortable if the decline continued for another month or two.

“If you’re worried, lifting interventions and restrictions may be happening with a little more enthusiasm and speed than making me comfortable,” he said. “My own little saying is that it’s better to wear a mask for a month than to remove it a month early and suddenly soar.”

Many state officials are reducing restrictions by saying that they are moving away from treating the coronavirus pandemic as a public health crisis and instead shifting to policies that focus on prevention.

At a press conference on Friday, Utah Governor Spencer Cox announced that Utah will move to a model called the “steady state” model from April. In this model, Utah will close the mass test site. Advise residents to lay the groundwork and make personal choices to manage the risk of being infected with the virus.

“To be clear, this is not the end of COVID, but like any other seasonal respiratory virus, it is the end, or beginning, of COVID treatment,” said a Republican.

Also on Friday, Boston lifted the proof of the city’s vaccine policy. It required patrons and interior space staff to show proof of vaccination.

“This news highlights the progress we have made in the fight against Covid-19, thanks to vaccines and boosters,” Boston Mayor Michelle Wu said on Twitter.

Dr. Amy Gordon Bono, Nashville’s primary care physician, said it was time to double vaccination efforts, not diminish them. In the spring of 2021, when vaccines became more readily available, the United States “was eager to declare COVID’s independence,” she said. Then there was a surge in Delta and Omicron.

Bono, who attended the School of Medicine at the University of Tulane in New Orleans, said the United States should approach COVID as follows: Hurricane season..

“You need to learn to live with COVID, and then you need to learn,” she said.

One challenge, she said, is that each region has its own landscape. In the southern United States, for example, many restrictions have been lifted for some time or did not exist in the first place. Still, it is also an area with relatively low vaccination rates.

“We are very suffering and if there is a way to help relieve future suffering, it has a more vaccinated community,” she said.

In Buffalo, Russo said he was looking at two possible future outcomes. For one thing, the United States experiences fairly quiet springs and summers while its immunity is still strong. He said the scenario is likely to be a weakened immune system and a surge in new cases during the cooler months of the flu season, but hopefully it’s not a serious surge.

The second is about public health professionals, where new variants evolve to avoid immune barriers built from both Omicron infections and vaccination.

“It’s a big question whether such varieties can evolve, right?” He said. “That’s a concern we have to see. Omicron is its first version, and there’s this kind of saying,” Over time, the virus evolves to become less virulent, “but it really is. Is not true. The virus will evolve and become able to infect us. ”

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