A new daily record for administering Covid-19 vaccines was set Friday, but many experts reiterate that the pandemic is far from over.
The total number of doses administered jumped by about 3.38 million, according to a tweet from White House Covid-19 Data Director Dr. Cyrus Shahpar.
This is the fourth time the number of doses administered has jumped more than 3 million on consecutive days. The previous one-day record was just over 3.2 million doses, on March 13.
While the record is great news, it doesn’t mean the pandemic is over, experts say. Evidence that Americans are gearing up for a return to normal life is becoming more apparent by the week.
States are relaxing capacity restrictions for public areas and private gatherings. More school districts are reopening for in-person learning. Travel is increasing, with TSA data showing more than 1 million daily passengers in US airports for two consecutive weeks, the longest such stretch since the Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns in early 2020.
Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said on NBC’s “Today” show Thursday that the US is “still seeing about 1,000 deaths a day,” which she noted was way too many.
As for the number of daily infections, Walensky said, “What worries me is the steady flow of 50,000, 60,000 – and we continue to see that even today.”
Walensky pointed to early signs that vaccinations are working, citing the decreased mortality rates for those over the ages of 65. Yet more infectious variants of Covid-19 are circulating, she warned.
With some states seeing rises of at least 10% in weekly average cases, according to Johns Hopkins University data, variants such as B.1.1.7 may lead to a greater risk of exposure and a potential stagnation in the fight against Covid-19.
“It tells us when we have a more contagious variant that all bets are off because it means that the activities that we thought were pretty low risk are now going to be higher risk,” CNN medical analyst Dr. Leana Wen told CNN’s Anderson Cooper on Thursday.
The variants are also complicating treatments, as the usage of certain monoclonal antibody therapy to treat Covid-19 have been halted due to lowered eff