How will Biden deal with the pandemic?
1:23
(CNN) ––
Despite the steady increase in deaths from covid-19, a medical expert said the United States now has a chance to "control the pandemic."
“We will see a lot of deaths in the next two months.
But there is a ray of light ", said this Monday the Dr. Jonathan Reiner in the program" New Day ".
Reiner is a professor of medicine at George Washington University and a CNN medical analyst.
LEE: The US has an "alarming level" of covid-19 transmission, says an expert;
the country adds almost 4 million cases this month
"Over the past four days, for the first time in months, we've seen a steady decline ... 1,000 fewer hospitalizations per day in the United States," he said.
"We have seen the same trend in new cases."
Nationwide, hospitalizations are around 124,000 per day, up from 132,000 a few weeks ago.
Reiner also noted that testing has increased in recent weeks, but positivity has dropped to about 11%.
This, compared to the peak of 14% a few weeks ago.
"All those metrics point to the conclusion that we may have passed the peak," he said.
"If we stay there now, wear masks and vaccinate as quickly as possible, we can start to control this pandemic," he insisted.
Still, deaths related to covid-19 are close to 400,000 in the United States.
Additionally, several states have already reported cases of a new variant of coronavirus first detected in the UK.
advertising
US will ask air travelers for negative covid-19 tests 0:43
The number of infections of this variant is likely to "double each week," according to Dr. Scott Gottlieb, a former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
"In about five weeks, this (variant) will start to take over," Gottlieb said during an interview on CBS's "Face the Nation."
"The only barrier against this new variant is the fact that we will have many infections by then, so there will be a lot of immunity in the population and we will be vaccinating more people," he added.
But this really changes the equation.
And I think that what we are seeing is a relentless attack of this virus, which is heading towards spring, "he said.
"We could have persistently high levels of infections in the spring until we finally get enough people vaccinated," he said.
Although variants of covid-19 are not necessarily more lethal, they can cause more deaths, warned Dr. Anthony Fauci on NBC this Sunday.
LOOK: Covid-19 variants may not be more deadly, but they can still cause more deaths, says Fauci
“Although, individually, (the variant) is not more virulent, which means that it does not make you sick more or make you more prone to dying, just by the numbers, the more cases you have, the more hospitalizations you will face.
And the more hospitalizations you have, the more deaths, ”Fauci explained.
A new variant of covid-19 is now "increasingly found in various counties in California."
This was announced by state health officials this Sunday in a press release.
The variant, dubbed 452R, is different from variant B.1.1.7 first detected in the UK, health officials say.
As variant testing has increased in California, the 452R variant has been identified more frequently since November.
It has also been detected in large outbreaks in Santa Clara County.
'It is too early to know if this variant will spread more quickly than others.
But it certainly reinforces the need for all Californians to wear masks and reduce meeting with people outside of their immediate homes to help slow the spread of the virus, ”said epidemiologist Dr. Erica Pan of the California Department of Public Health.
The United States approaches 400,000 deaths from covid-19
As of just over the middle of January, the US has added a staggering 3.9 million new COVID-19 cases and more than 51,000 virus-related deaths.
Are tourists taking Florida residents' vaccinations?
1:55
The total death toll from covid-19 in the country is now rapidly approaching 400,000.
That number is more than the number of Americans who died in World War I, the Vietnam War, and the Korean War combined.
It is also about the same number of Americans who died in WWII.
And it is much higher than the death toll from covid-19 in any other country.
According to data from Johns Hopkins University, as of Monday there were at least 23,964,891 cases of coronavirus in the United States, with at least 397,808 deaths.
"The numbers are pretty shocking," Dr. Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, told CNN late Sunday.
This month, the United States has added more than 200,000 daily cases every day, except for three days.
And the actual number of infections may, in fact, be several times higher than what was recorded, a recent study suggested.
Hotez estimates that the figure is closer to a million new infections daily.
"This is an egregious level of transmission in the United States and people are scared, people are upset," Hotez added.
"There is a great deal of work to be done starting January 20."
Deaths from covid-19 in the USA: the gray bars represent the number of additional deaths reported each day.
The orange line shows the seven-day average.
Experts warned that while vaccines are on the way, the country is still far from out of danger.
In fact, the incoming director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warned Sunday that "dark weeks" are ahead.
"By mid-February, we expect half a million deaths in this country," Dr. Rochelle Walensky told "Face the Nation."
"We have not yet seen the ramifications of what happened due to vacation trips, holiday gatherings, in terms of high rates of hospitalizations and subsequent deaths," Walensky added.
Hospitals under 'severe stress' next month
More than 124,300 Americans are currently hospitalized with the virus across the country, according to the Covid Tracking Project.
To put that in perspective, the figure is more than double the peak of COVID-19 hospitalizations in the US last spring, according to project data.
In its latest report, the University of Washington Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation projected that hospitals in many states "will be under severe stress in the next four weeks."
That has already been the case in different parts of the country.
LEE: Do not delay key medical appointments during the pandemic, says medical expert
Los Angeles County - the epicenter of the COVID-19 crisis in California - has battled a brutal increase in infections, hospitalizations and deaths for weeks.
County health officials reported Sunday that more than 7,400 people remained hospitalized with the virus.
Of these, 23% were in intensive care units.
Pennsylvania officials said late last week that there were more than 4,900 people hospitalized with COVID-19.
This is almost double the spring peak.
In Georgia, a hospital told CNN affiliate WSB that they were so full they had to treat patients in corridors and ambulances.
"We really are in the darkest days," Dr. Deepak Aggarwal of Northeast Georgia Medical Center told the news station.
12 million Americans received the first dose of Covid-19 vaccine
Meanwhile, more than 12.2 million Americans have received their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, according to data from the CDC.
More than 31 million doses have also been distributed throughout the country, according to the agency.
That happens while the country is just days away from President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration.
Biden has detailed a plan for the vaccines that includes expanding eligibility to more people, creating more vaccination sites and taking steps to increase the supply and distribution of vaccines.
“Our plan is as clear as it is bold: get more people vaccinated for free.
Create more places for them to get vaccinated.
Mobilize more medical teams to get vaccines into people's arms.
Increase supply and get it out the door as soon as possible, "Biden said last week.
LOOK: The new contagious variant of covid-19 could worsen the pandemic, the CDC warns
Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers said Monday that he believes the incoming Biden administration will come through.
"I think the Biden administration understands the importance of this," Evers said while speaking at a vaccination clinic at the Prevea Health / University of Wisconsin-Green Bay Kress Events Center.
"We will get the vaccine we need."
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said he sent a letter to Health Department Secretary Alex Azar on Monday.
As he explained, the letter demanded an explanation of what it said was a false claim that the reserve doses of vaccine would be sent to the states.
"The federal government has control of the supply, it must increase the supply," Cuomo said.
The governor added that he also sent a letter to the president of Pfizer asking if New York can buy doses of vaccines directly from the drug company.
What Cuomo thinks would be the first time.
Lauren Mascarenhas and Jacqueline Howard, both from CNN, contributed to this report.
covid-19 Deaths Pandemic