National Post (National Edition)
U.S. surges of COVID `all touch Ontario'
Michigan has become the new epicentre of the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S., with one health expert linking the surge to the spread of the U.K. variant from its Ontario neighbours.
Data compiled by Johns Hopkins University shows Michigan is recording the highest daily infections per capita in the United States, averaging 7,359 new cases per day over the past week.
Much of the COVID-19 surge is due to the spread of the U.K. variant, which is more transmissible and lethal than the original strain.
Dr. George Rutherford, a University of California San Francisco epidemiologist, said that the surge could be driven by outbreaks at youth athletic events and the corresponding COVID-19 surge in Ontario.
“It's an interesting … thing. Where do we have big surges? We have big searches in Michigan, and in Minnesota, and also kind of around Buffalo, New York State. All right, so what do those three things have in common? They all touch Ontario. Now, there's also a big surge. And I assume you guys have the B.1.1.7 U.K. variant as well. And I mean, I realize the borders are closed, and it's hard to get back and forth …. but sort of weird that it's all happening at the same time, kind of within that general geographic area.
“There's some smoke there. And I think somebody should take a look at it and see what the real thing is. And that's it, it's no more than that, just rank speculation.” Rutherford said.
Since March 2020, the border between U.S. and Canada has been closed to all non-essential travel, with both governments extending the closure on a monthly basis.
Last month, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau extended the border closure to April 21. The U.S. has also posted a travel advisory warning Americans not to travel to Canada.
Ontario health officials are struggling to contain a third wave of COVID-19 which, if unchecked, could see the province recording up to 6,000 new cases daily by the end of April. On Sunday, the province set a new record high of daily COVID-19 infections recorded after observing 4,456 new infections, bringing the total number of cases to 386,608.
The province reported 3,670 new cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday and 15 more deaths linked to the virus.
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has urged the Biden administration to increase the amount of vaccine shipped to Michigan in the hopes of dampening down its COVID-19 surge.
According to the Washington Post, President Joe Biden told Whitmer last week that his administration would provide help to her state, including extra federal vaccinators and therapies such as monoclonal antibodies. But Biden has resisted abandoning a formula for allocating vaccine doses based strictly on states' population.
“If we try 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,” said Rochelle Walensky, the head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in a Monday news briefing.
“The answer” to Michigan's serious outbreak, she said, “is to close things down, to go back to the basics, to go back to where we were last spring and summer” when many states imposed closing orders on restaurants, commerce and public spaces.
She noted that, depending on which of the three vaccines allowed in the United States for emergency use they receive, someone getting a first shot needs two to six weeks to develop immunity. “It will take so long for the vaccine to have an impact,” she said.
Over the weekend, the state's total number of COVID-19 cases were pushed to more than 738,000 since the start of the pandemic. Whitmer has not instituted a lockdown as yet but on Friday called for a voluntary two-week suspension of indoor restaurant dining, youth sports and in-person high school classes, the L.A. Times reported.
On Sunday, Whitmer said in an interview on CBS's Face The Nation that the spike in cases in Michigan is likely due to variants, adding that it was occurring even though the state has implemented measures such as mask mandates, capacity limits, and working from home.
“That's precisely why we're really encouraging them to think about surging vaccines into the state of Michigan,” Whitmer said.