- The US is at risk of a “potential fourth surge” of virus cases, the CDC’s top official said Monday.
- She urged Americans to stick to CDC rules to avoid this, and warned states against easing up.
- The CDC gave emergency authorization to a third COVID-19 vaccine on Saturday.
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The US risks a fourth surge of COVID-19 cases if people don’t follow public health recommendations, according to the top officials of the CDC.
Speaking at a White House press briefing on Monday, Dr. Rochelle Walensky said: “Please hear me clearly, at this level of cases, with variants spreading, we stand to completely lose the hard-earned ground we have gained”.
Walensky, the CDC’s director since January 20, said that recent declines in cases in the US have been stalling abd remain “at a very high number”, at around 67,200 cases per day.
The figure is a 2% uptick compared to the previous week.
Walensky said she was “really worried” about states rolling back public health measures recommended by the CDC.
“Now is not the time to relax the critical safeguards that we know can stop the spread of COVID-19 in our communities, not when we are so close. We have the ability to stop a potential fourth surge of cases in this country”, she said.
Last week, President Joe Biden also warned against complacency in the face of variant spreading in the US.
Recent studies suggested that a variant first found in California could be more contagious and deadly than others, raising fears that such variants could harm the recovery.
Experts have warned that more data is needed before knowing for sure how serious the variants are.
“Ultimately, vaccination is what will bring us out of this pandemic”, Walensky said.
On Friday, the FDA gave the Johnson & Johnson single-shot jab emergency use authorization in the US. It joins the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines.
“This means we now have three safe and highly effective vaccines that prevent serious illness, hospitalization and death from COVID-19”, Walensky said.
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