Health Experts See A Safer Future For Americans But Stress The Practice Of Safety Precautions

Americans could expect a safer future in a few months, but it was crucial that they kept practicing the safety precautions against the spread of Covid-19 and went along with the advice of health officials as the US worked on more vaccinations, according to an expert who to spoke to CNN on Monday.

Health Experts See A Safer Future For Americans But Stress The Practice Of Safety Precautions

The US was not done with Covid yet, and Covid was not also done with the US, and the variants still posed a risk, according to Tom Frieden, former director for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He added the third quarter was not when one declared victory.

He added Americans needed to continue wearing masks and avoid crowded indoor spaces, where the virus could be expected to spread rapidly. Frieden’s remarks come as officials tracked the variants that were circulating in the US. The variants included the extremely contagious B.1.1.7, which was detected first in the UK.

According to experts, the variant was now spreading rapidly in the country, and the CDC had said it would likely emerge this month as the predominant variant.  Michael Osterholm, an epidemiologist, had earlier this week warned of the variant fueling a  dangerous surge in a period of several weeks.

According to Dr. Chris Murray, director of the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), things would get better in a slow and steady manner. 

However, their worst scenario was that people stopped masking faster and started holding gatherings faster, which could trigger a surge in April. 

Putting it in a different way, how communities acted over the next few weeks could determine better or worse outcomes for Covid-19 numbers.

In a recent move, Mark Gordon, Wyoming Governor, announced that he would lift the mask requirements across the state and let restaurants, bars, gyms and theaters resume operations normally, starting March 16.

 In a statement Monday, Gordon urged all citizens of Wyoming to continue taking personal responsibility for their actions and called on them to stay diligent as the state looked at the coming warmer months as also as its traditional activities during the summer and spring.

He added for K-12 schools; the face-covering protocol would continue to be in place.

The dropping of mask mandates had also earlier this month been announced by several state leaders, including Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves and Texas Governor Greg Abbott.

Meanwhile, Americans had been urged by health officials, including CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky and Dr. Anthony Fauci, to continue wearing masks to stay safe even as states moved for the elimination of restrictions.

Fauci, on Monday, urged the National League of Cities to listen to the CDC recommendations regarding mitigation methods, physical distancing, and the wearing of masks. 

While many state leaders that announced eased measures had pointed to Covid-19 trends that were seen as encouraging in their state along with growing vaccination numbers, experts say that enough residents had not been vaccinated for suppressing the transmission of the virus.

CDC data showed that over 60 million Americans had been given at least one Covid-19 vaccine dose, and over 31.4 million Americans were not fully vaccinated, which amounted to roughly 9.5% of the US population.

Meanwhile, the CDC had released fresh guidelines for people who had vaccinated fully and said they could safely visit others who had been vaccinated, as also small groups of people who had not been vaccinated in some cases, but precautions for safety were still needed.

According to the guidance, fully vaccinated people could visit vaccinated people indoors without wearing masks or physical distancing. They could also make visits to unvaccinated people indoors, from a  single household, if the unvaccinated people ran a low risk for severe disease.