More than 600,000 people have died from Covid-19 in the United States since the start of the pandemic, a sad threshold crossed as the country gradually completes its reopening, with the lifting of restrictions in two of the most populous states.
The virus has killed more than 600,185 people in the country, according to figures Tuesday afternoon from Johns Hopkins University, which benchmark.
A “sad milestone”, lamented President Joe Biden, calling on Americans to get vaccinated “as soon as possible”.
Thanks to the immunization campaign, the number of daily deaths has indeed dropped considerably, and allowed a near return to normal in most of the country.
Almost all restrictions were lifted in California on Tuesday. No more masks for people vaccinated in most public places, as well as capacity limitations for restaurants and other establishments, said Governor Gavin Newsom during a ceremony to mark “the complete reopening of the Californian economy “.
Ditto in New York, which has reached 70% of adults who have received at least one dose of vaccine, allowing the governor to announce the lifting of the latest restrictions.
A symbol, knowing that New York had been, for long weeks, the epicenter of the epidemic last year, before California in turn became one of the main foci of coronavirus during the winter .
– “Too many lives lost” –
The 500,000 death mark was exceeded at the end of February, just under four months ago. By way of comparison, only one month had passed between the milestone of 400,000 and 500,000 deaths.
The number of daily deaths now stands at just over 300 per day on average, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the country’s main federal public health agency.
“There are still too many lives lost,” Joe Biden said on Monday, citing a “real tragedy”. “My thoughts are with all those who have lost a loved one,” he said from Brussels, where he was then for the NATO summit.
The United States is by far the country with the heaviest death toll linked to the coronavirus, according to official data communicated by authorities around the world, ahead of Brazil and India.
The immunization campaign has been carried out with full force by the authorities since the authorization of the first vaccines in December. But its pace has since slowed down sharply and unvaccinated people still remain vulnerable to the disease.
Just over 52 percent of the U.S. population, or 174 million people, has already received at least one dose of one of the three vaccines licensed in the country, according to health officials.
Joe Biden has set a goal for 70% of adults to have received at least one dose by July 4, National Day. But that goal is likely to be missed by a few percentage points: just over 64% of adults have received at least one injection so far.
– The Delta variant worries –
The number of new daily cases has recently started to stagnate, settling on a plateau of around 13,000 cases recorded each day.
In this context, experts are worried about the arrival of the Delta variant, initially appeared in India, more transmissible and which “could be associated with more severe cases”, warned last week Dr. Anthony Fauci adviser to the House White.
This variant currently represents about 10% of cases in the country. But it could gradually replace the Alpha variant, which appeared in England, as the dominant variant.
The vaccines remain “fortunately” effective against Delta, added Dr Fauci.
“A high vaccination rate is the best way to combat the Delta variant,” Ashish Jha, a researcher at Brown University’s School of Public Health, tweeted Monday while expressing “concern” at its “rapid spread. “.
However, about a third of the American population has not planned to be vaccinated at the moment, according to a poll in late May of the Kaiser Family Foundation.
If some of the refractories are fiercely opposed to it, others are simply hesitant, and the authorities are doing everything to convince them, by increasing the number of places for vaccination and assistance to get there, sometimes in partnership with private companies. (transport, childcare …).
Some states have even started lotteries for those vaccinated, with prizes going up to several million dollars.
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