“We are in a critical point of the COVID-19 pandemic now,” Marie Van Kerkhove, PhD, WHO’s technical lead for COVID-19, said during an April 12 media briefing. “This is not the situation we want to be in 16 months into a pandemic where we have proven control measures. It is the time right now where everyone has to take stock and have a reality check of what we need to be doing.”
“Vaccines and vaccinations are coming online, but they’re not here yet in every part of the world where they need to be,” Dr. Kerkhove added.
This is also the fourth consecutive week global deaths have increased, the agency said in an April 12 statement.
The news comes as the U.S. hit a daily vaccination record April 10, with 4.6 million shots administered.
At the same time, the country is averaging 69,632 new cases per day as of April 12 — an 11 percent increase compared to the average from two weeks earlier, according to The New York Times COVID-19 database.
Michigan is reporting the country’s largest surge in cases, with a seven-day average of 7,377 new daily cases — a 60 percent increase from two weeks earlier. In response, Rochelle Walensky, MD, CDC director suggested the state reinstate shutdown measures.
“When you have an acute situation, extraordinary number of cases like we have in Michigan, the answer is not necessarily to give vaccine,” Dr. Walensky said during an April 12 news conference, noting that seeing the effects of a working vaccine would take several weeks. “The answer to that is to really close things down, to go back to our basics, to go back to where we were last spring, last summer, and to shut things down to flatten the curve.”
More articles on public health:
Fully vaccinated but COVID-19 positive? 4 notes on breakthrough case prevalence
1 in 4 American adults don’t want a COVID-19 vaccine: NPR
COVID-19 death rates by state: April 12
