States close mass test and vaccine sites, but uptick in virus may loom
CHICAGO — As Americans shed masks and return to offices and restaurants, local and state officials are scaling back the most visible public health efforts to address the coronavirus pandemic.
States like Illinois are shuttering free COVID-19 testing sites after nearly two years of operation. Arizona, Nevada, Hawaii and Ohio have stopped releasing daily data on virus hospitalizations, infections and deaths. And, perhaps most notably, some places are diminishing their campaigns to vaccinate residents even as federal authorities announced Tuesday that people 50 and older could get a second booster shot.
The slowing of state and local efforts comes as the virus in the United States appears, at least for now, to be in retreat, with cases falling swiftly in recent weeks.
But the cutbacks also arrive at a moment when a more transmissible version of the omicron variant of the coronavirus, known as BA.2, is spreading through Europe, Asia and is now the dominant version of new virus cases in the United States. New coronavirus infections are edging upward once again in several states, including New York.
And Americans are still lagging behind many other countries in vaccination. Only about 65% of Americans have received initial shots, and less than onethird of Americans have had a first booster shot.
If another surge in the pandemic is ahead, public health officials said, it could be a challenge to quickly ramp up the vaccination and testing sites and other measures that are now being shut down.
“We have to be cautious in how we move forward,” said Dr. Ben Weston, chief health policy adviser for Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, where he has kept vaccine clinics open. “Imagine that we’re a boat at sea and we just got off the largest tidal wave we’ve ever been on. It would be a strange time to throw out the life jackets.”
Some health officials said that they were merely shifting their efforts in the face of dwindling demand for both COVID-19 tests and vaccines, with fewer than 225,000 shots administered across the country each day.
Dr. Allison Arwady, Chicago’s top health official, said that two popular vaccination initiatives — a $50 gift card incentive and a program to vaccinate Chicagoans in their homes any day of the week — would be pared down in April.
“It’s definitely the time to be pulling back on some resources,” Arwady said.
Demand for vaccines has waned, she explained, and she is trying to save money as she anticipates cuts in federal funding because of an impasse in Washington over COVID-19 spending.
In San Antonio, with a majority of residents already immunized and case numbers at a low, demand for vaccines at the mass site outside the city’s Alamodome has dropped, said Miguel Cervantes, the city’s public health administrator. The site closed Friday after 15 months of continuous operation and more than 200,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses. At its peak, it administered roughly 3,500 vaccinations a day. Last week, it averaged fewer than 50.
Federal dollars for the COVID-19 pandemic have been dwindling in recent days, as a fund designated to reimburse tests and treatment for the uninsured is no longer accepting claims. State and local officials, alarmed by debates in Washington over the future of COVID-19 funding, have anticipated that they will face tighter budgets in the near future if federal funds are cut.