COVID-19 Update

Seems like a new pattern is emerging. There's always a slump in the numbers of new cases and new deaths over the weekend. But it looks like maybe there's a bit of a corresponding spike in the number of new vaccinations over the weekend too.

We've kinda been here before, so let's not get happy just yet.

WaPo:

U.S. is ‘turning the corner’ on latest pandemic surge, Fauci says

The nation’s top infectious-disease expert, Anthony S. Fauci, says the United States is “turning the corner” on the latest surge in the coronavirus pandemic, as the White House touts a high weekend vaccination rate fueled by vaccine requirements and booster shots.

White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain said Sunday on Twitter that the United States topped a million vaccinations Saturday for the first time in weeks. More than 1.2 million doses were administered that day, according to data tracked by The Washington Post. Administered doses last passed 1 million on Sept. 14.

“We certainly are turning the corner on this particular surge,” Fauci said in a Sunday interview on ABC News’s “This Week.”

But he warned — as proved over more than a year and a half of the pandemic — that even amid a turnaround, another surge may be on the horizon if vaccinations don’t ramp up.

“When you have 70 million people in the country who are eligible to be vaccinated who are not yet vaccinated, that’s the danger zone right there,” he said. “So it’s within our capability to make sure that that turnaround that we’re seeing, that very favorable and optimistic turnaround, continues to go down and doesn’t do what we’ve seen multiple times before where it goes down, and then it comes back up.”

Here’s what to know:

• In a separate interview on CBS News’s “Face the Nation,” Fauci cautioned that it was “too soon to tell” when asked if people would be able to safely gather for Christmas. “Let’s focus like a laser on continuing to get those cases down,” he said.
• As the city’s vaccine mandate for public school teachers and staff went into effect on Monday, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) said that 95 percent of the city’s full-time Education Department employees are vaccinated against the coronavirus.
• Federal authorities have charged a Veterans Affairs nurse with stealing authentic coronavirus vaccination cards from a Michigan Veterans Affairs hospital, along with vaccine lot numbers required to make the cards appear legitimate, and later reselling those cards for $150 to $200, according to a criminal complaint.

VAX UP

MASK UP

KEEP YOUR DISTANCE

WASH YOUR HANDS

why you gotta make this hard?