THE HEAD of the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention on Monday said she is “deeply concerned” the drop in coronavirus cases has stalled and that mutations could cause another surge.
In a White House virtual briefing, Dr Rochelle Walensky said that the most recent seven-day average of Covid-19 cases, roughly 67,200, represented an increase of just over 2 percent compared to the prior seven days.
“The latest CDC data continue to suggest that recent declines in cases have leveled off at a very high number,” Walensky said.
“I remain deeply concerned about a potential shift in the trajectory of the pandemic.”
Walensky noted that the most recent seven-day average of deaths also hiked up more than 2 percent from the previous seven days to close to 2,000 deaths daily.
“These data are evidence that our recent declines appear to be stalling,” she said.
Walensky said that about 70,000 coronavirus cases per day is not acceptable and that mutations could be the reason for the leveling out.
“Please hear me clearly: At this level of cases, with variants spreading, we stand to completely lose the hard-earned ground we have gained,” the CDC head said.
Walensky added that studies have indicated that strains can emerge “in a single host” and that it is a reason “to decrease the circulating virus everywhere.”
The nation’s top infectious disease expert, Dr Anthony Fauci, on Monday warned that the New York variant, B.1.526, should be taken “very, very seriously.”
Research “has shown we have to really keep an eye on that variant’s ability to evade both [man-made] monoclonal antibodies and to a certain extent, the vaccine-induced antibodies,” Fauci said of the strain.
The New York variant was detected in the Washington Heights neighborhood and spread to various boroughs.
Other variants have come from the UK and South Africa, and the strains could be more contagious and deadly than Covid-19, according to health experts.
As of Monday, more than 514,000 people have died of Covid-19 in the US, according to Johns Hopkins University’s Coronavirus Resource Center.
Walensky advised states to not relax coronavirus safety protocols.
“With these new statistics, I’m really worried about reports that more states are rolling back the exact public-health measures we have recommended to protect people from COVID-19,” she said.
She and Fauci encouraged Americans to continue to getting the coronavirus vaccines and that doing so could minimize the spread of strains.
