More than 600,000 people have died from Covid-19 in the United States since the start of the pandemic, according to figures released on Tuesday by Johns Hopkins University, a somber reminder that hundreds of Americans still die every day from the coronavirus , despite the vaccination campaign.
Read also: Could the Covid-19 epidemic have started in the United States, as Beijing suggests?
This “
sad milestone,
” in the words of President Joe Biden, comes as the country continues to complete its reopening. Almost all restrictions were lifted in California, the most populous state, on Tuesday. And New York has reached 70% of adults who have received at least one dose of the vaccine, allowing the governor to announce the lifting of the latest restrictions. A symbol, knowing that New York had been, for many weeks, the epicenter of the epidemic last year.
The United States is by far the country with the heaviest coronavirus death toll, according to official data communicated by authorities around the world, ahead of Brazil and India.
"
There are still too many lives lost,
" Joe Biden said on Monday, referring to a "
real tragedy
".
"
My thoughts are with all those who have lost a loved one,
" he said from Brussels, where he was then for the NATO summit.
“
We still have work to do to beat this virus.
Now is not the time to let our guard down,
”he added, calling on Americans to get vaccinated“ as
soon as possible
”.
Read also: Covid-19: in the United States, the lifting of the mask for the vaccinated causes confusion
The immunization campaign has been spurred on by the authorities since the authorization of the first vaccines in December, and peaked in April, with up to more than four million injections per day. But its pace has since slowed down sharply and unvaccinated people still remain vulnerable to the disease. Just over 52 percent of the U.S. population, or 174 million people, has already received at least one dose of one of the three vaccines licensed in the country, according to health officials.
Joe Biden has set a goal for 70% of adults to have received at least one dose by July 4, National Day. But that goal is likely to be missed by a few percentage points: just over 64% of adults have received at least one injection so far. The Delta variant worries. The House of Representatives observed a moment of silence on Monday in honor of the 600,000 people who died.
The number of daily deaths has therefore fallen sharply, but it still stands at more than 300 per day on average, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the country's main federal public health agency.
And the number of new daily cases has recently started to stagnate, settling on a plateau of around 13,000 cases recorded each day.
In this context, experts are concerned about the arrival of the Delta variant, which initially appeared in India.
"
Its transmissibility is higher
" and "
it could be associated with more severe cases
," warned Dr. Anthony Fauci last week during a press briefing by the White House team in charge of managing the
disease.
health crisis.
Delta accounts for about 10% of cases
This variant currently represents about 10% of cases in the country. But it could gradually replace the Alpha variant, which appeared in England, as the dominant variant. The vaccines remain “
fortunately
” effective against Delta, added Dr Fauci. "
A high vaccination rate is the best way to combat the Delta variant
," Ashish Jha, a researcher at Brown University's school of public health, tweeted Monday, while expressing "
concern
" at its "
rapid
spread.
". However, about a third of the American population has not planned to be vaccinated at the moment, according to a poll in late May of the Kaiser Family Foundation.
If some of the refractories are fiercely opposed to it, others simply remain hesitant, and the authorities are doing everything to convince them, by increasing the number of places for vaccination and assistance to get there, sometimes in partnership with private companies. (transport, childcare ...). Some states have even started lotteries for those vaccinated, with prizes going up to several million dollars.
