White House Covid chief says America is ‘in a much better place than we’ve been in the past’

Cases of Covid are on the rise in the US, and although the country’s top health officials have reassured Americans that there is still not much to be done, they peaked in the spring season on Monday after a sharp weekly increase.

Dr Ashish Jha, White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator, said on National Public Radio that the country is doing much better than in previous months, particularly due to high vaccine coverage and recall adoption in the United States.

America currently has an average of 50,280 cases per day, an increase of about 50% over the past seven days and the highest daily average since early March. Part of this increase is due to a large backlog of Covid cases that entered the public register on Friday, with more than 100,000 cases reported nationwide in a single day.

Despite the mere increase in cases, death rates are still low, with 374 Americans dying from the virus every day – a 17% drop in the past seven days and the lowest death rate trends since August remain.

“It’s really worth it if you take a step back and look at the big picture” [noting] this is happening in a context where more than 200 million Americans are vaccinated, more than 100 million Americans are empowered,” Jha said of the recent increase in cases.

Dr. White House Covid Response Coordinator Ashish Jha (pictured) told NPR on Monday that the country is in a good position despite rising cases.

“I really think we are in a much better place than in the past.”

After spending most of the time from late March and April to the late 1930s, the numbers are not large enough to be considered a wave of the virus, although the number of cases has increased significantly in recent days to exceed 50,000.

By comparison, Omicron’s winter peak peaked at 800,000 cases per day, meaning daily numbers are still down 94% since the virus peaked.

Deaths were also at their lowest just before the Delta variant spike last summer, and hospitalizations, while an often unreliable figure, have been hovering around 15,000 a day, the pandemic low, in recent weeks.

As Jha points out, the prevalence of the COVID-19 vaccine in America is largely responsible for slowing the death of the virus. About 90 percent of American adults received at least one injection of the vaccine, and a third of the population also received a booster dose.

The reassurances came when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) began mapping a new variant of COVID-19 called BA.2.12.1, a sub-variant of the “hidden” BA.2 variant, which is itself a variant. by Omicron.

Last week, the CDC included variant BA.2.12.1 in its NOWCAST and the strain accounted for 19% of the sequential cases in the Americas. The subspecies belongs to the BA.2 species, which is itself a subspecies of the Omicron variant.

Little is known about this version of the virus, although it is believed to have a 27% growth advantage over the original version of BA.2, although there is no evidence that it is more severe than its predecessor.

The BA.2.12.1 variant was first discovered by authorities in New York last week. The CDC reports that the strain is now dominant in the region, which includes neighboring New Jersey, accounting for 52.3 percent of cases.

Since the variant’s discovery, Covid cases in New York have started to rise, with a 66% jump in the past two weeks.

New York City is also seeing gains, with daily numbers up nearly 50% over the past 14 days.

The region designated by the CDC, which includes New Jersey and New York, is the only region in the Americas where BA.2.12.1 is the dominant species.

Other areas where the new Omicron strain is gaining ground include the Mid-Atlantic, including Virginia, Maryland, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Delaware, with 23 percent of successive cases. It also accounts for about 20% of cases in New England and the Deep South.

The CDC, which was more cautious than others during the pandemic, also draws attention to the decrease in the number of pandemics. Less than one percent of US states are considered to be at “high” risk of Covid, according to the latest CDC update.

Only 14 counties in the United States – less than 0.5% of America – are considered high-risk Covid. Thirteen of the counties are in New York, the rest are in Kansas.

There is no information that the new strain, which is dominant in New York, is responsible for the higher risk of transmission.

Earlier this year, the CDC revised its Covid risk calculations to measure, first and foremost, hospitalization rates, based on previous statistics using daily infection rates only.