Photo: Joe Raedle / Getty Images
For: EFE
Photo: Joe Raedle / Getty Images
For: EFE
ATLANTA, Georgia – Cases of Ómicron, the new variant of Covid – 19, could reach a million a day in the United States if measures are not adopted to contain its rapid advance, an expert from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warned this Thursday.
“Surely we can reach that point if we do not take the protection measures that we are recommended,” he declared José Montero , director of the CDC Center for State, Tribal, Local and Territorial Support, based in Atlanta.
The health authorities are urging the population to continue the measures basic measures to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus, . tance with other people and avoid crowds.
“If people are not taking care of themselves and going to massive events without masks, obviously the number of cases is going to increase drastically, and that’s what we don’t want. We want to keep it under control and we can do it if we all protect ourselves: get vaccinated, wear masks, avoid crowds and get tested if we suspect that we have been exposed or if we are going to visit the family during these holidays, “said Montero.
According to the most recent figures from the CDC, whites represent the 55. 6% of the total number of covid cases registered in the country (15, 538, 978), followed by Hispanics, who assume the 48. 5% (6, 880, 843), African Americans, with the 10. 6% (3, 260, 538) and Asians with 3.1% (880, 263).
“Ómicron has p clothed by the world in a dramatically fast fashion. Less than a month ago we had the first reports from Africa. And in the United States it was a couple of weeks ago. We saw that the way the virus spreads is so fast that the numbers were doubling every 48 hours ”, indicated Montero.
In just one week, the number of cases of the new variant in the United States passed from 12% to 73%, proportion which is even higher than 90% in some areas of the country such as the coast this, in cities like New York, and in the southeast, in states like Georgia and Florida, explained the expert.
We can say that omicron disease is milder, because we do not know. In general, what we have seen historically in the pandemic is that two weeks after the cases increase, we begin to see an increase in hospitalizations and four weeks later we see an increase in deaths, “said Montero.
However, based on the information handled by the South African authorities, Montero He pointed out that the data suggest that cases of the new variant are less severe and that fewer people require hospitalization, compared to the delta variant.
“But we need more data. This is still too new to rest assured. The other thing is that people can misinterpret the fact that the disease is less severe and we expose ourselves and expose ourselves more to others. With everything and that it is a less severe disease, if there are more cases, there is more death ”, the expert concluded.
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