New COVID-19 cases down in all 50 states as cumulative death toll approaches 600K
Mask mandates relaxed in major retailers as vaccination rate increases; USA now sharing more vaccine doses with countries desperate for COVID help.
The president said Monday that new COVID-19 cases are down in all 50 states for the first time since the pandemic began.
The cumulative death toll is closing-in on 600,000 lives lost in the USA due to COVID-19.
The Johns Hopkins tracker counts 586,326 deaths in the USA.
Brazil is rapidly catching up - with nearly 436,000 deaths, up sharply since February.
Now that the CDC says masks are no longer needed if you are fully vaccinated, many large retailers are dropping their mask requirements. Those of us who are fully vaccinated will need to get accustomed to the concept that we are protected and safe, even if unmasked people around us may not be vaccinated.
About those breakthrough infections… The CDC is tightening up what it considers a breakthrough COVID-19 case to count only people who are fully vaccinated and then hospitalized or dead with a confirmed COVID-19 infection. Previous tallies included asymptomatic and unconfirmed but reported cases.
As of May 10, there were 181 COVID-19 deaths and 794 COVID-19 hospitalizations out of more than 115 million people in the USA who were fully vaccinated, according to the CDC.
Places with high vaccination rates have low hospitalization rates. While this certainly was predicted, the real-life numbers are impressive. Marin County, Calif., has 70% of its eligible population fully vaccinated, and its 7-day rolling average of new cases is less than 6 - down from a peak of 119 in early January. In contrast, Stanislaus County in the Central Valley has only 30% of its population vaccinated and a 7-day average of 48 new cases a day.
The USA will send 20 million doses of Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines to countries that need help, the White House announced. The move comes as the USA’s surplus of vaccine doses has grown. This commitment is on top of the previous announcement that the US would share up to 60 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine, which is not yet authorized in the USA but is manufactured here.
The global Covax vaccine sharing initiative has not had a vaccine shipment since March. This reflects Covax’s reliance on vaccine manufacturers in India, which has been severely hit by a COVID-19 resurgence.
The Los Angeles Times has a useful article about how to approach someone who is not yet vaccinated. Among the tips: “If your friend doesn’t trust what he reads in newspapers, sending him an article about how safe and effective vaccines are will not be compelling.”
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