‘Turning the Corner:’ US COVID Outlook

Check out these optimistic samples in regard to the COVID-19 pandemic. The source is the New York Times which covers most of the world.

A newspaper reporter, Philip Cheung, published these uptick information items in a story on Thursday.

“After weeks of Coronavirus patients flooding emergency rooms in Michigan, the worst Covid-19 hot spots the United States, hospitalizations are finally falling.”

“On some recent days, entire states, including Wisconsin and West Virginia, have reported zero new Coronavirus deaths — a brief but promising respite from the onslaught of the past year”

Cheung wrote.

And in New York and Chicago, officials encouraged by recent progress have confidently vowed to fully reopen in the coming weeks, conjuring images of a vibrant summer of concerts, sporting events and packed restaurant revving cities back to life.

“We’re clearly turning the corner,” said Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota.

In the past, lulls in the pandemic were short-lived, giving way to the surge across the Sun Belt last summer, and the painful outbreak that stretched across the United States this winter.

But now, there is one crucial difference: More than half of American adults — 148 million people — have received at least one dose of a Coronavirus vaccine, perhaps the biggest reason experts are optimistic that the improved outlook may last.

The situation in the United States stands in stark contrast to other parts of the world, where many countries are still scrambling to secure access to vaccines.

India remains in dire crisis, and thousands of people are dying each day in Brazil.

In the United States, even as a sense of hope spreads, there remain strong reasons for caution.

The pace of vaccinations is slowing and expert now believe that herd immunity in the United States may not be attainable.

More transmissible variants of the virus are also spreading, threatening to undermine the progress from vaccinations.

Dr. Osterholm pointed to recent outbreaks in Minnesota, Michigan and Oregon as clues to how the pandemic might progress in the coming months.

In pockets across the country, small outbreaks have continued to cause alarm, infections are rising in places like Multnomah County, Ore, which contains Portland; Pueblo County, Colo.; Grand County, Utah; and Powell County, Ky.

“What we’re going to see are more of these localized outbreaks that are going to require a response from governors and mayors,” Dr. Osterholm said.