Ledes from the Land of Enchantment

US exceeds 50 million Covid-19 cases





The United States exceeded 50 million coronavirus cases on Sunday, according to Reuters tally, as the Delta variant continues to threaten Americans and the newly discovered Omicron variant spreads, Reuters reports.

After about two months of declining infections, the US reported daily increases for the past two weeks, driven by the more easily transmissible Delta variant.

States in colder parts of the country have the largest increases in new infections on a per capita basis, including Vermont, New Hampshire, and Michigan.

The number of hospitalized Covid patients has also risen by 20 percent since Thanksgiving at the end of November.

Last month, deaths rose 4.6 percent, with the country’s death toll exceeding 800,000.

Almost half of the US states have discovered cases of the Omicron variant, but the Delta variant still accounts for 99 percent of current Covid cases, said CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky.

In order for Omicron to become a significant problem, it must change that balance in order to become dominant. “If we suddenly found that 10% of new infections are Omicron and then it climbed to 20% in the next week, that would tell us that we are in a replacement wave like we saw when Delta replaced Alpha,” said John Moore, professor of microbiology and immunology at Weill Cornell Medical College.

Analysis of Reuters data shows it took almost a year to hit the first 25 million Covid cases and 323 days, less than a year, to climb from 25 million to 50 million cases.

Laboratory studies published this week suggest that the Omicron variant of the coronavirus will weaken the effects of the Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine for preventing Covid-19 infection after two doses, although a third dose can restore that protection.

Around 14 percent of people in the United States have now received a booster vaccination. Nearly 10 million of these people have received the additional footage since the Thanksgiving holiday, with concerns about the Omicron variant.

Pfizer and Merck have developed Covid-19 antiviral drugs that work on all variants, and countries are rushing to buy the pills.

Vaccination should still be a priority for Americans, but having pills that can keep people out of the hospital “could save lives,” said Xavier Becerra, US Secretary of Health.

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