Officials warn Americans not to let their guard down
With a COVID-19 vaccine perhaps just days away in the U.S., most of California headed into another lockdown Sunday because of the surging outbreak and top healthoffifficialswarnedAmericans that this is no time to let their guard down.
“The vaccine’s critical,” Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator, said on NBC’s “Meet thePress.”“But it’snot going to save us fromthis current surge. Only we can save us fromthis current surge.”
A Food and Drug Administration advisory panel is scheduledtotakeuparequest Thursday to authorize emergency use ofPfifizer’s vaccine. Vaccinations could begin just days later, though initial supplieswill be rationed, and shots are not expected to become widely available until the spring.
With the U.S. facing what could be a catastrophicwinter, top government offifficials warned Americans anew to wear masks, practice social distancing and follow other basic measures — precautions that President Donald Trump and other members of the administration have often disdained.
“I hear community membersparroting back those situations— parrotingback that masks don’twork, parroting back that we should work towardsherdimmunity, parroting back that gatherings don’t result in super-spreading events,” Birx said. “And I think our job is to constantly say those aremyths, they are wrong and you can see the evidence base.”
Thevirusisblamedforover 280,000 deaths and more than 14.6 million confifirmed infections in the U.S. New cases per day have rocketed to an all-time high of more than 190,000 on average.
Deathsperdayhavesurged to an average of more than 2,160, a level last seenduring the dark days in April, when the outbreak was centered around NewYork. The number ofAmericans in the hospital with the coronavirus topped 100,000 for the fifirst time over the past few days.
Dr. ScottGottlieb, a former FDA commissioner, warned on CBS’ “Face the Nation” that the U.S. death toll could be approaching 400,000 by the end of January.
“As bad as things are right now,” he said, “they’re going to get a lot worse.”
InCalifornia, thefifirstplace toenactastatewidelockdown last spring, newstay-at-home orderswere set to take effffffffffffect Sunday night in Southern California, much of the San FranciscoBay area andother areas.
The newrules in the state of 40millionpeopleprohibit residents fromgatheringwith thoseoutsidetheirhousehold. Retailers includingsupermarketsandshoppingcenterscan operatewithjust 20% capacity, while restaurant dining, hair salons, movie theaters, museums and playgrounds must shut down.
Hospitals in California are seeing space in intensive care units dwindle amid a surge ininfections. California health authorities imposed the order after ICU capacity fell belowa 15% threshold in some regions.
Somelawenforcementoffifficials, though, said they don’t planto enforce the rules, and some business owners are warning that they could go under after a year of on-andoffffclosings and other restrictions.
CaliforniaGov. GavinNewsom said he hopes the new lockdown order is the last one he has to issue, declaring the vaccine offffffffffffers “light at the end of the tunnel.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is recommending that health care workers and nursing home patients get priority when the fifirst shots become available.