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On Sunday, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Dr. Anthony Fauci warned that the nation could be at risk of a new surge of COVID-19 infections as the number of daily cases in the US has remained at a height. The chief medical adviser to President Biden said, “When you’re coming down from a big peak and you reach a point and start to increase, once you stay at that height, you’re really in danger of a surge coming up. And unfortunately, that’s what we’re starting to see”. However, the nation experienced a sharp decline in coronavirus cases from January to early March 2021. Data from the CDC (Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention) says the number of daily new infections has hovered between roughly 50,000 and 60,000.

Point to be noted that the number of new cases reached 71,593 on Friday, as 30 states and the District of Columbia reported a rise in infections. Fauci added, “While new coronavirus variants identified in the United Kingdom and South Africa are playing a part in the spikes of new cases. An increase in travel for spring break and rolling back of mitigation methods have also contributed. Several states have done that. I believe it’s premature”. The increase in COVID-19 infections came during the Biden administration’s efforts to accelerate the pace of coronavirus vaccinations. The US federal government has started supplying vaccine doses directly to pharmacies and community health centers to more quickly deliver shots into the arms of Americans. Last week, the Biden administration announced a $10 billion commitment to ensure the vaccines are being distributed equitably.

On Thursday, President Biden announced he doubled the nation’s target of vaccinations to 200 million doses within his first 100 days in office. CDC said that the US is now administering between 3 and 3.5 million vaccines daily, and 140 million doses total have been administered. So, around 27% of the entire US population has received at least one dose of their COVID-19 vaccines. Fauci also said, “If the US continues at a pace of more than 3 million daily doses administered, invariably that’s going to drive the rate and the level of infections per day to a much, much lower level. If we get into the summer and you have a considerable percentage of the population vaccinated and the level in the community gets below that height that’s worrying me and my colleagues in public health”.