Large holiday gatherings in U.S. not safe even if boosted, Fauci says
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[December 23, 2021]
By Ahmed Aboulenein and Katharine Jackson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Americans vaccinated
and boosted against COVID-19 can be with family over the holidays but
attending large gatherings is not safe, even for those who received a
booster dose, top U.S. infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci said on
Wednesday.
The United States faces a second Christmas of upended holiday plans,
with a surge in infections fueled by the now-dominant Omicron variant of
the coronavirus forcing many to cancel travel, reconsider visiting loved
ones, and question attending holiday parties.
"There are many of these parties that have 30, 40, 50 people in which
you do not know the vaccination status of individuals. Those are the
kind of functions in the context of Omicron that you do not want to go
to," Fauci said at a White House briefing.
Early evidence indicates Omicron is less severe than the Delta variant,
said Fauci, citing studies from South Africa and Scotland, but warned
Americans must remain cautious.
"This is good news. However, we must wait to see what happens in our own
population which has its own demographic considerations," he said.
The seven-day average of COVID-19 cases in the United States rose 25%
from the previous week to about 149,300 cases per day, said U.S. Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky, with
average daily deaths up 3.5% at 1,200.
Omicron represents approximately 73% of cases across the country, said
Walensky, and as high as 90% of cases in some areas, such as the eastern
Atlantic states, parts of the Midwest, South, and northern Pacific
states.
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Dr. Anthony Fauci speaks about the Omicron coronavirus variant
during a press briefing at the White House in Washington, U.S.,
December 1, 2021. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo
"This increase in Omicron proportion is what we anticipated and what
we have been preparing for," she said.
The U.S. government will have 265,000 treatment courses of Pfizer
Inc's COVID-19 anti-viral treatment available by January and 10
million by late summer, said White House COVID-19 response
coordinator Jeff Zients.
The Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday authorized Paxlovid,
Pfizer's pill for at-risk people aged 12 and above.
The government will provide any resources Pfizer needs for
production and will distribute treatments to states and localities
at no charge as soon as they are delivered, he said.
(Reporting by Ahmed Aboulenein and Katharine Jackson; Additional
reporting by Caitlin Webber in Washington and Kanishka Singh in
Bengaluru; Editing by Leslie Adler and Alistair Bekk)
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