Michigan shutdown put in frame by CDC chief
Five states, including Michigan, are reporting nearly half of the new coronavirus infections in the United States, and a top health official of US President Joe Biden said on Monday that Michigan cannot vaccinate its way out of the biggest surge in the country and needs to shut down again.
Michigan recorded more than 100,000 active cases in the last week. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC, currently lists it as having the highest infection rate in the country with 492.1 positive infections per 100,000 people.
Rochelle Walensky, the CDC director, said on Monday that the trend points to a shut down for the state.
Hospitals in Michigan also reported a 30 percent rise in COVID-19 admissions over the last week, as the state has seen a dramatic spread of the B 1.1.7. variant, with 70 percent of new cases stemming from that strain.
Governor Gretchen Whitmer has said she will not roll back relaxed coronavirus measures, which allow restaurants to be open at 50 percent capacity and schools to hold in-person learning.
She has urged residents to avoid both activities for the next two weeks, but made clear “these are not orders, mandates, or requirements”, while asking the White House for a greater allocation of vaccine doses.
But Walensky told a White House news conference: “The answer is not necessarily to give vaccine. I think if we tried to vaccinate our way out of what is happening in Michigan, we will be disappointed that it took so long for the vaccine to work — to actually have the impact.
“The answer is to really close things down, to go back to our basics, to go back to where we were last spring, last summer, and to shut things down, to flatten the curve.”
During the first week of April, 453,360 new cases were reported in the US. Five states including Michigan, accounted for 44 percent of new cases, or nearly 197,000, data compiled by Johns Hopkins University showed.