Covid’s cases are on the rise in the northeastern United States as many Americans travel and gather together for spring break and religious holidays.
The rise is due to BA.2, a sub-variant of Omicron that is more portable than its brother BA.1 and was responsible for approximately 86% of new Covid-19 cases nationwide last week, according to the US Centers for Disease Control. and prevention (CDC).
As precautionary measures were eased in many places earlier this year, experts looked to see if BA.2 would lead to a new leap. “That’s what the beginning of leaps looked like in the past,” said Julia Raifman, an assistant professor at Boston University’s School of Public Health.
The increase in cases is expected to lead to school and work interruptions as more and more people become ill. The United States is now at a “key moment for action,” Raifman said. “If we take decisive action to reduce transmission, then we will reduce the growth of cases … and if we don’t, then we are really leaving the virus to decide what comes next.
The number of cases in the United States remains relatively low, and rates continue to fall in several parts of the country. But in the United States as a whole, there is an increase in numbers, with an average of 30,000 people testing positive in the United States each day, up from about 26,000 last week, according to the CDC.
Washington, DC, where Mayor Muriel Bowser and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said they contracted Covid cases last week, has one of the highest average increases in two weeks. Rhode Island, Maryland, Kansas, Oregon, New Jersey, Connecticut and New York saw an increase of more than 60%.
Philadelphia was the first city to renew its mandate for indoor masks on Monday in a bid to prevent an increase in hospitalizations, which the University of Pennsylvania said could increase in the coming weeks. The city will also add requirements for proof of vaccination if the cases continue to increase.
The White House renewed its mandate for public transport masks for another two weeks on Wednesday.
Several universities in the United States, including Columbia, the United States, Georgetown, George Washington, John Hopkins and Rice, are also returning to disguise mandates on campus.
However, hospitalizations in the United States for Covid are at record lows, with 74% of hospital beds currently used for all reasons nationwide. But hospitalizations can be an indicator of backwardness, so it is not yet clear whether BA.2 will severely affect the health system.
The death toll is just over 500 every day. Doctors hope that access to treatments, including monoclonal antibodies and antiviral drugs for those most vulnerable, can halt the rise in Covid-related hospitalizations and deaths.
But federal funding for these drugs is running out without a new deal yet. Only 1.5 million of the planned 10 million Paxlovid antivirus courses, for example, have been delivered to states and territories.
Hospitalization and death are not the only serious results – the long Covid is also a real concern, Raifman said. The official number of cases is also affected by the proliferation of home tests and the lack of available tests for those without insurance, she added.
“We are really going back in our response, even when the virus stays with us.
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