As the pandemic continues to spread across the country, it is important to take suitable precautions to safeguard yourself and your family from the infection. The seriousness of the issue can be understood with the staggering number of deaths that are happening across the country in recent weeks. According to latest reports, LA county is reporting close to one death every ten minutes. This is a scary situation and the hospitals are overflowing with covid patients.
Corona Vaccine Updates: Rising Cases Across US, Vaccine Reactions
California is already facing severe shortage of ICU beds and the state is under stay at home order since the last few days. The situation is so bad that doctors and medical staff are working additional shifts on most days without taking a break. The inflow of patients is so high that they are finding it difficult to provide proper treatment on many occasions.
The CDC has warned that the situation is likely to get worse in the near future considering the number of people who are traveling for holidays in the recent weeks. During the festival season, the TSA has screened more than a million passengers every day and this is a huge number considering the pandemic situation. Most people are traveling for holidays and not for any other important work. This can be easily avoided in this pandemic situation.
During the recent Thanksgiving event, many people traveled across the country and a huge surge was seen in the number of new coronavirus cases soon after the event. The same pattern is likely to repeat after the Christmas holidays and experts have warned that the situation may get worse in the near future. The authorities are not able to do much apart from issuing warnings in this regard.
There is a new strain of coronavirus that is creating panic across the European region. The new strain that is detected in the UK has spread rapidly across the country and many other neighboring countries have banned travelers from Britain. Even the US is issuing travel restrictions on passengers coming from the UK according to the guidelines of the CDC. the passengers will have to test covid negative in order to be allowed into the US. other than that, they have to follow covid guidelines and quarantine themselves without fail for two weeks.
The vaccines developed by Pfizer and Moderna are being distributed in large numbers across the US. The federal government has sent the vaccines to all the states and the distribution program was first started in hospitals across the country. Doctors and frontline health workers got the first preference when it came to receiving the covid vaccines. As of now, most people who received the vaccines did not have any complaints about the vaccine.
However, about six cases of adverse reactions were reported for the Pfizer vaccine across the country. This was a small number considering the fact that over a million people got the vaccines. The health experts say that this is normal and many people may experience side effects if they are allergic to some medication or injectable substance.
In a recent case, a doctor developed adverse reactions to the Moderna vaccine. However, he later clarified that he had a history of allergic reactions and understood the risk of taking the vaccine.
Health experts say that many more cases of adverse reactions may be seen in the near future as more people get vaccinated. However, this should not deter others from using the vaccine as it is safe for a majority of people who do not have any history of allergic reactions. Till the time a vaccine is available, it makes sense to use masks and take other precautions to avoid getting infected during the festival season.