What you should know
- New York City officials are encouraging people to wear “double masks” in accordance with the latest CDC recommendations, which come as the vaccine launch faces challenges and new variants threaten
- The vaccination program, which has faced supply problems from the beginning, was further hampered this week by a system of winter storms that paralyzed deliveries and forced appointment cancellations and delays.
- COVID numbers locally and nationally continue to decline from their last post-holiday peaks; New York State has seen its positivity rate decline for 41 days in a row and hospitalizations have plummeted
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NEW YORK – New York City has issued a new guide encouraging people to wear “double masks” in accordance with the latest CDC recommendations, released last week as the United States battles the rising prevalence of variants. and highly contagious challenges in its unprecedented vaccination launch.
The researchers found that a mask, surgical or cloth, blocked about 40 percent of the particles that made their way towards the head that was breathing. When a cloth mask was worn over a surgical mask, about 80 percent were blocked. If two people wore double masks, the percentage was even higher (up to 95 percent).
“Two are better than one,” said New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio when he and Health Commissioner Dr. Dave Chokshi announced their update to the city’s mask guide Thursday. Chokshi, who recently revealed her own diagnoses of COVID-19, a product of domestic transmission, said that people should also opt for a perfect fit.
Masks with two or three layers and a tightly woven fabric are better at preventing unfiltered air from passing through, the new city guide said. Higher-grade masks, such as a KN95 mask, are best (and especially recommended for people 65 and older and people with underlying medical conditions), but you can also wear a cloth face cover over a regular disposable mask, officials from the the city.
Chokshi emphasized that double masking will be implemented alongside the other proven COVID mitigation methods.
“Particularly with newer variants of the virus, our public health precautions are much more important, both to protect ourselves and others,” he said.
The three main strains of interest, the strains from the UK, South Africa and Brazil, have expanded their reach in the US in recent weeks. The UK strain, which the CDC warned could be predominant in the United States next month, is by far the most prevalent to date, with more than 1,500 cases detected in 42 states.
New York accounts for 82 of them, with 11 of the 12 most recent reported this week coming from New York City, while New Jersey has confirmed at least 50 cases of the strains in the UK and Connecticut has found 42. Only one has been A local South African variant was detected – in a Connecticut resident hospitalized in New York City – while no cases of the Brazilian variant have been found (yet) in the tri-state area.
The new threats come as New York State enjoys a 41-day stretch of declining positivity rates following increased holidays. Hospitalizations across the state have plummeted by nearly 3,000 since their last peak exactly a month ago on Friday.
At the same time, the launch of the vaccine has faced a number of challenges related to weather conditions that, according to officials, could ultimately extend the duration of the pandemic. Disruptions in U.S. shipments have forced the cancellation and postponement of appointments across the country, including tens of thousands in New York City.
The five districts administered more than 55,000 doses in one day last week, a record for a single day. As of Friday morning, the city had fewer than 18,000 first doses available and is still awaiting the allocation it was due to receive this week.
Statewide, New York health care distribution sites had administered 96 percent of all first doses received to date as of 11 a.m. Thursday. Almost all the doses that were scheduled to be delivered to the state between February 12 and 21 are delayed due to continued winter storms that hit the country, Governor Andrew Cuomo said.
“All doses that should have been shipped on Monday were held back, and only a limited number of Pfizer vaccines left the shipping facility on Tuesday and Wednesday,” Cuomo said. “This delay will undoubtedly represent a logistical challenge for New York,” where state-run sites are almost fully booked through mid-April.
Headaches – from weather and supply conditions, to confusion about how and where to book appointments and computer glitches – continue to mount for the millions of three-state residents eager to receive their initial vaccinations. At the same time, the eligibility pool continues to expand rapidly as officials hope that faster infusions in weapons will lead to faster economic and public health recoveries for their states.
New Jersey has experienced similar shortages and delays in vaccine deliveries in recent weeks. Despite scheduled appointments being delayed for days in some parts of the state, Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli said the state has continued to make great strides since implementation began in December.
The Garden State hit its own single-day dose delivery record of more than 13,000 this week, Persichilli said. The acceleration hit a wall with the latest winter storm, shutting down three of the state’s six mega-sites on Thursday and Friday and forcing Monmouth County to delay four appointment days to next week.
Like Chokshi in New York City, Persichilli also emphasized the benefits of double masking as New Jersey navigates this critically vulnerable period in the process.
Gov. Phil Murphy, who wore his own double mask for the first time earlier this week in the wake of the new guidance, donned the double mask for the first time on Wednesday in light of the new CDC guidance and varying concerns.
If it weren’t for those variants, Murphy has said he likely would have taken additional reopening steps, including increasing the indoor dining capacity higher and before the 35 percent cap that he increased it to (from 25 percent) earlier. of this month. He describes the variants – and their potential impacts – as a “wild card” and says he has chosen to proceed with great caution. The risk is too high.
“I think we would be planning right now, a lot more, I’m going to use the word aggressive, but a much more comprehensive series of steps to reopen in the next few weeks, but the variance is hanging over our heads,” Murphy said Wednesday.
Efforts to detect variants have gained momentum at the local and national levels, and states and cities have increased their capacity to do so alongside the feds. Until recently, the US has only mapped the genetic makeup of a small fraction of positive samples, a situation that some experts have likened to flying blind. CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky has said the downward trend in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations in the US could be reversed if new variants are established.
In general, vaccines are expected to protect against the variants that have emerged and the new ones that will do so over time. Despite the unknowns, President Joe Biden’s prediction that the United States could return to a semblance of normalcy by Christmas is “reasonable,” a senior adviser to his COVID-19 team said Thursday.
During the past two weeks, daily averages for coronavirus cases and deaths have dropped by about half in the United States, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. According to the latest data from the CDC, more than 41 million, about 12% of Americans, had received at least one dose of a vaccine.
The United States now teeters on the brink of half a million COVID deaths, reporting more than 494,000, a global high, as of Friday. The nation topped 28 million confirmed infections on Thursday, according to a tally by NBC News.
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