Failure to act now would result in an unnecessary loss of life in the fall and winter, warned top U.S. health officials on Wednesday.
As more transmissible omicron subvariants sweep the U.S., new infections and hospitalizations are on the rise again.
According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the nation is reporting more than 94,000 new infections daily, a 25% increase over the previous week. According to CDC data, hospitalizations have increased 18% over the past week with about 3,000 people admitted with Covid every day.
Many people are taking at- home tests which are not captured in the data and that's why infections are higher.
We know that the number of infections is higher than that, but we know that a lot of people are getting diagnosed using home tests. There are a lot of infections in America.
32% of Americans live in areas with medium or high Covid levels, which is a metric that takes into account infections and hospitalizations. When a community has a high Covid level, the CDC recommends that people wear masks indoors and that the public check the health agency's website.
The current wave of Covid cases, based on the data available, is about 90% lower than the first wave during the winter, which was unprecedented in its scale and speed. The peak of the first omicron wave was lower in hospitalizations.
The U.S. has a better national system in place to fight the current wave than it has in the past. For the first time, Pfizer's trial treatment is widely available. People with Covid who are at a high risk of severe illness are prescribed it. The nation's physicians write 20,000 Paxlovid prescriptions a day.
The website covid.gov/tests is where households can order eight Covid tests for free. Pfizer shots for kids ages 5 to 11 have been approved by the FDA. Everyone over the age of 5 would be eligible for at least three shots if the CDC signs off on boosters for that age group on Thursday. People over the age of 50 can receive a fourth dose, while people over the age of 12 can receive a fifth dose.
The U.S. doesn't have enough money to make Covid tests for the fall. He warned that the U.S. would suffer a needless loss of life if Congress did not pass the funding request. Public health officials are expecting another wave of infections in the fall as immunity fades from the vaccines, the virus becomes more transmissible, and people head indoors to escape the cold.
If we don't get any more resources from Congress, we have to plan for that. I don't think it would be good. If that were to happen, I think we would see a lot of unnecessary loss. More than one million people in the US have died from Covid.
The FDA is likely to adopt a new vaccine this summer that will target the latest version of the Covid virus with the aim of giving people more durable protection against it. If Congress doesn't provide money, the U.S. will only be able to provide the next-generation shots to people at high risk of severe disease, the elderly and immune compromised. He said that the U.S. would run out of treatments for people who get infections.
Covid test manufacturers in the U.S. are laying off workers and shutting down production lines because the federal government doesn't have enough money to support them. They are going to sell off equipment and get out of the business. If there is a wave in the fall and demand for testing suddenly increases, the U.S. would be dependent on test manufacturers in other countries.
The public shouldn't expect a projection of what will happen in the fall. The models vary because they are dependent on how much immunity is in the population from the first wave and how much it will protect against a future wave. The projections of a fall wave would be changed if Congress passed funding for next generation vaccines.
Republicans have been blocking the Senate from passing $10 billion in additional Covid funding. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Sen. Romney, R-Utah, hammered out a smaller funding deal in April. Conservatives are refusing to support the deal unless the CDC reimposes a public health law that deported asylum seekers to Mexico during the Pandemic.
He spoke to lawmakers again this morning and is optimistic that Congress will come through.
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