The US is again quickly approaching another grim milestone: 25 million Covid-19 cases in a little more than a year since the country reported its first infection.
Now scientists at the CDC are speaking with UK health officials to learn more about data suggesting the same variant could be more deadly.
But National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Francis Collins said Saturday it’s still too soon to tell if the variant is more deadly, telling MSNBC, “this is very preliminary data. “
While the vaccine rollout throughout the country has been slower than officials had hoped, Dr. Anthony Fauci said Saturday that if Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine is authorized for emergency use, the US could see a significant boost in available doses by May. That vaccine only requires one dose, instead of the two necessary for the current Covid-19 vaccines.
Meanwhile, the FDA also told CNN Saturday that if absolutely necessary, “modest delays” between first and second doses of the current Covid-19 vaccines are not expected to decrease protection against the virus.
The agency said it “recognizes that getting as many people as possible across the country fully immunized will help to curtail the spread of the virus that causes COVID-19 and should be a priority. “
Los Angeles County — which for weeks has been the epicenter of the state’s Covid-19 crisis — has now surpassed 15,000 Covid-19 deaths, health officials said Saturday.
“While we are seeing some positive data in daily new cases and hospitalizations, we are far from out of the woods,” Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said in a statement.
