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 While the number of COVID-19 cases fell for the fifth straight week
and officials scrambled to inoculate the population, the nation was
poised to reach 500,000 deaths from the highly infectious
respiratory disease.
(Graphic: Where coronavirus cases are rising and falling in the
United States - https://graphics.reuters.com/HEALTH-CORONAVIRUS/USA-TRENDS/dgkvlgkrkpb/index.html)
It has been nearly a year since the pandemic upended the country
with dueling public health and economic crises.
"It's nothing like we've ever been through in the last 102 years
since the 1918 influenza pandemic. ... It really is a terrible
situation that we've been through - and that we're still going
through," Dr. Anthony Fauci, White House COVID-19 medical adviser
and the nation's top infectious disease official, told CNN's "State
of the Union" program on Sunday.
The White House said on Sunday it planned a memorial event in which
Biden would deliver remarks.
A White House spokesman said the president along with first lady
Jill Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and second gentleman Doug
Emhoff would hold a moment of silence on Monday and there would be a
candle-lighting ceremony at sundown.
Biden last month observed America's COVID-19 deaths on the eve of
his inauguration with a sundown ceremony at the Lincoln Memorial's
Reflecting Pool.
Biden will use "his own voice and platform to take a moment to
remember the people whose lives have been lost, the families who are
still suffering ... at what is still a very difficult moment in this
country," White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters on
Friday.
[to top of second column] |
 STILL AT 'VERY HIGH' LEVEL
More than 28 million COVID-19 cases have rocked
the United States and 497,862 have died, even as
daily average deaths and hospitalizations have
fallen to the lowest levels since before the
Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. The virus
took a full year off the average life expectancy
in the United States, the biggest decline since
World War Two. While the decline
"is really terrific ... we are still at a level that's very high,"
Fauci said on NBC's "Meet the Press" program. "We want to get that
baseline really, really, really low before we start thinking that
we're out of the woods."
Fauci told CNN that Americans may still need masks in 2022 even as
other measures to stop the virus' spread become increasingly relaxed
and more vaccines are administered, and they may also need a booster
shot depending on how variants emerge.
Less than 15% of the U.S. population has received at least one
vaccine dose, with nearly 43 million getting at least one shot and
nearly 18 million getting a second shot, U.S. statistics show.
More localities are easing some restrictions, such as on indoor
dining, and moving to reopen schools even as millions await their
shots, sparking debate over the safety of teachers, students and
others.
Financial pressures also continue to weigh even as economists
express optimism for the year ahead. Congress is weighing Biden's
$1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package, with the House of
Representatives expected to vote on it this week and the Senate
seeking to pass it before March 14.
(Reporting by Linda So, Nandita Bose and Michael Martina; Additional
reporting by Will Dunham; Writing by Susan Heavey; Editing by Lisa
Shumaker and Peter Cooney)
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