Has the U.S. turned the corner on Covid?
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One of the many questions people are asking is, “Has the U.S. finally turned the corner on Covid-19? It’s a question that boggles the mind. Many are optimistic. Many still hold to the belief that the U.S. won’t get better for a while.
The numbers
A new Axios/Ipsos poll released finds that 63% of adults are saying they have had or are likely to get the Covid-19 vaccine as soon as it’s made available. That’s the highest poll ever recorded by Ipsos.
When given the option of getting the vaccine immediately or at a later date, 50% of Americans say they’ll get it as soon as it’s available compared to at a later date. That too is the highest percentage ever recorded by Ipsos.
However, there is room is for optimism as the number of people being diagnosed is falling, and the number of people being vaccinated is rising, according to a new report from BBC News. The rise in vaccinations is expected to continue in an upward trend as more vaccines are made available.
As of Friday, the daily seven-day rolling average of new cases still sits at around 130,000, but has continued to drop since December 2020. Some analysts have suggested that the U.S. has already seen 30 to 40 percent drop in new cases over the past 14 days.
According to the BBC report, hospitalization has dropped has also dropped significantly, currently down around 20%. According to the report, 80,000 people are still currently in the hospital — that’s still 20,000 more than during the two previous surges last year.
The death rate is still averaging higher at 95,000 deaths with a total of around 3,000 deaths per day. Some analysts believe that number is beginning to go down though the metrics still show a major lag behind case rates and hospitalizations.
Good news
One of the first things that President Joe Biden wanted to see when he entered into office was to set a goal of 100 million vaccinations administered by his 100th day in office. New reports as of Friday show the Federal government is already well on the way to that reaching that goal and beyond. An average already of one million shots a day was hit on 21 January, the day after he was inaugurated.
The US is now averaging more than 1.3 million vaccinations a day and the President has recently upped his target to 1.5 million a day bringing the expected total to closer to around 149 million doses.
Seeing it on a global scale, the US vaccine program is going well. The country’s average of nearly 12 vaccinations administered per 100 people is above Canada (3) and all of Europe apart from the UK (18). Israel has the highest rate of any country, with 63 per 100 people.
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ATR News Contributing Writer Andy Burton in Livonia, MI contributed to this report.
