The US is seeing the worst days of the pandemic and had its highest day of new cases — 217,664 — and deaths — 2,879 — on Thursday, according to Johns Hopkins.On Friday, there were 101,276 people hospitalized with Covid-19, breaking the previous record set on Thursday, according to the Covid Tracking Project. This is the third consecutive day that the US has remained above 100,000 current hospitalizations.More than 14.3 million cases and more than 278,000 deaths have been recorded in the US, according to Johns Hopkins University. For months, health experts have said that to prevent spread of the virus, people should keep their distance from others, wash their hands and wear their masks. As they learned more about this coronavirus and the disease it causes — Covid-19 — officials have amended their recommendations.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday strengthened its guidance for face coverings, saying that wearing a mask is critical and sometimes people should wear them even in their homes. “Because the highest risk for transmission has been documented among household contacts of Covid-19 patients, keeping the household safe requires physical distancing, using the other public health strategies summarized here, and, in particular, consistent and correct use of face masks (outside the household and in some circumstances within the household) to prevent introduction and transmission of (the virus),” the CDC said. The CDC also said that while face coverings should be worn to cut down on possible transmission of the virus, they also can provide some protection to the person wearing one.
Officials have cautioned that coronavirus cases will rise during the winter as more people stay inside, and as people gather for holidays. Cases, hospitalizations and deaths are at an all-time high, but vaccines will help once they are authorized.
States are now preparing to roll out the vaccines to frontline health care workers and people at long-term care facilities. Ohio was one of the states that on Friday released its plan.”During Phase 1, vaccine supply will be limited, and Ohio will focus on vaccinating those who wish to be vaccinated in the critical Phase 1A groups,” according to a news release from the office of Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine.
Ohio expects to receive 660,000 doses in before the end of December. In New Jersey, where hospitals are preparing to receive 76,000 doses of the vaccine in the first shipment, Gov. Phil Murphy called vaccine distribution a “game changer.” But he warned New Jerseyans not to expect restrictions to be lifted soon. “Covid isn’t going to simply vanish just because there are vaccine doses in a freezer waiting for distribution,” Murphy told reporters. Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said full immunity to the virus develops a week to 10 days after people get the second of two doses of a vaccine. “OK, so both of the vaccines that we’re talking about — the Moderna vaccine and the Pfizer vaccine — are what’s called a prime boost, one injection followed in (three to four) weeks by another injection,” Fauci told CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta and Anderson Cooper on Friday during CNN’s Coronavirus Town Hall. People start to develop immunity after the first dose of the vaccine, Fauci said, but it’s not optimal. “After the second dose, you get optimal immunity anywhere from seven to 10 days after the second dose,” he said.
The vaccines appear to provide protection that is at least as strong, if not stronger than, the immunity that you find in a person who has had Covid-19.
“If you look at the vaccine, the level and quality of neutralizing antibodies was comparable to and even better than what you see in the convalescent plasma of people who actually were infected and developed an immune response,” he said. “It’s at least as good as the response associated with natural infection.”