COVID-19 cases are down in all 50 states for the first time since the start of the pandemic, according to multiple reports.
White House senior COVID-19 adviser Andy Slavitt said at a Tuesday briefing that the U.S. is winning the war against the coronavirus right now due to the vaccine rollout.
- “For the first time since the pandemic began, COVID cases are down in all 50 states,” he said. “We are winning the war on the virus, and we need you to help us finish the job.”
President Joe Biden said Monday that 60% of Americans received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, according to The Washington Post.
- He said those who don’t get vaccinated “will end up paying the price.”
- “We’re still losing too many Americans,” he said, encouraging people to get vaccinated.
Can COVID-19 cases drop more?
View Comments
Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious diseases professor at Vanderbilt University, told CNN that this is only the beginning. Case numbers could drop even more if people get vaccinated, since vaccinations have been proven to slow transmission of the novel coronavirus, according to CNN.
- “Cases are going down, deaths are going down, hospitalizations are going down, vaccinations are going up,” he told CNN. “If the vaccinations increased even more rapidly, you would see those other metrics, those COVID metrics, going down even more.”
- “There’s still lots of people out there who haven’t come forward and rolled up their sleeves, we need them to do that,” he told CNN. “Vaccine in the refrigerator cannot prevent disease.”