Georgia has surpassed yet another milestone in the coronavirus pandemic, topping 9,000 deaths in the state.
As of Monday afternoon, the state Department of Public Health has reported 9,007 deaths in the raging pandemic, as a long-predicted fall surge continued its grip on the nation. Overall, the state agency has recorded more than 448,000 cases in Georgia since the pandemic began.
The U.S. continues to lead the world in the number of cases — 14.8 million — and deaths, with more than 283,000, according to the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Globally, there have been more than 67 million confirmed coronavirus cases, with a worldwide death toll of 1.5 million.
With the U.S. facing what could be a catastrophic winter, top government officials are warning Americans anew to wear masks, practice social distancing and follow other basic measures.
On Thursday, a Food and Drug Administration advisory panel is scheduled to take up a request to authorize emergency use of Pfizer’s vaccine. Vaccinations could begin just days later, though initial supplies will be rationed, and shots are not expected to become widely available until the spring.
“The vaccine’s critical,” Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator, said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “But it’s not going to save us from this current surge. Only we can save us from this current surge.”
“I hear community members parroting back those situations — parroting back that masks don’t work, parroting back that we should work toward herd immunity, parroting back that gatherings don’t result in super-spreading events,” Birx said. “And I think our job is to constantly say those are myths, they are wrong and you can see the evidence base.”
New cases per day have rocketed to an all-time high of more than 190,000 on average.
Deaths per day have surged to an average of more than 2,160, a level last seen during April, when the outbreak was centered around New York. The number of Americans in the hospital with the coronavirus topped 100,000 for the first time during the last few days.
Dr. Scott Gottlieb, a former FDA commissioner, warned on CBS’ “Face the Nation” the U.S. death toll could approach 400,000 by the end of January. “As bad as things are right now,” he said, “they’re going to get a lot worse.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is recommending that health care workers and nursing home patients get priority when the first shots become available.
Both Pfizer’s vaccine and a Moderna vaccine that will also be reviewed by the FDA later this month require two doses a few weeks apart. Current estimates project that a combined total of no more than 40 million doses will be available by the end of the year. The plan is to use those to fully vaccinate 20 million people.
Dr. Moncef Slaoui, head of Operation Warp Speed, the government’s vaccine development program, suggested on CBS that using those 40 million doses more broadly to reach 40 million people right away would be too risky, because of the possibility of manufacturing delays that could hold up the necessary second doses.
“It would be inappropriate to partially immunize large numbers of people and not complete their immunization,” he said.
But Gottlieb said he would push out as many doses as possible, taking “a little bit of a risk” that the supply would catch up in time for people to get a second dose.
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