Overwhelmed by COVID : Hanging In

"On the first day I'm inaugurated ... I'm going to ask the public for 100 days to mask, just 100 days to mask, not forever, 100 days."

"And I think we'll see a significant reduction if we incur that -- if that occurs, with vaccinations and masking, to drive down the numbers considerably."

U.S.President-elect Joe Biden

"For the time being, and the foreseeable future, the demand for vaccines is going to exceed the supply by a lot, even for the highest priority groups that are identified."

Josh Michaud, associate director, global health policy, Kaiser Family Foundation

"Progress on vaccines gives us all a lift and we can now start to see the light at the end of the tunnel. However, WHO  is concerned that there is a growing perception that the COVID-19 pandemic still has a long way to run and that decisions made by citizens and governments would determine the course in the short run and when the pandemic would ultimately end."

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus

 

"Now is not the time to blame one another or point fingers. Now is the time for us to keep working together [with a] difficult [holiday season ahead]."

"Every step of the way our job has not been to direct the provinces or judge the provinces; it has been to be there to support them."

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

A child wearing a Santa hat and a face mask looks for a Christmas tree at a farm in Harrowsmith, Ont., on Saturday. (Lars Hagberg/AFP via Getty Images)

Canada's surge of COVID-19 infections surpassed 400,000 cases Friday amidst news that federal officials placed a larger order of prospective vaccines, while releasing refined guidelines on those groups that would be first to receive vaccinations. It took a mere 18 days for the latest 100,000 cases to be notched up, the shortest infection period since March. The 300,000th case of COVID had been reached on November 16. When the coronavirus first reached Canada it took six months to record the first 100,000 cases, four months to reach 200,000, less than a month for 300,000.

 

People wear face masks as they wait to enter a store in Montreal on Saturday. (Graham Hughes/The Canadian Press)

 

The national death toll from the coronavirus is 12,470, each death a tragedy. Canada expects 40 million vaccine doses from Moderna in 2021 -- while optioning to obtain more of the two-dose vaccines -- enough to vaccinate close to 20 million people, as a start in its inoculation program. The National Advisory Committee on Immunization instructed first doses be directed to residents and staff of congregate living settings caring for seniors in recognition of the fact that fully 80 percent of the Canadian death toll due to COVID took place in long-term care institutions and retirement homes.

 

Additionally, adults 80 and over living independently should be prioritized, with the age limit decreasing by five-year increments to age 70. Health-care workers, and adults in Indigenous communities where infections can have disproportionate consequences are also among the first groups designated to receive vaccinations. "As a ballpark, these four groups of people as things are rolled out should be covered by the initial doses", stated Canada's chief public health officer, Theresa Tam. Presumably, the next designated group would be adults living with chronic health conditions.

Dr. Joseph Varon comforts a patient in the COVID-19 intensive care unit at the United Memorial Medical Center in Houston. Texas has reported more than 1,220,000 cases, including more than 21,500 deaths. (Go Nakamura/Getty Images)

In the U.S., deaths from the coronavirus set a single-day record with two people dying every minute as over 213,830 new cases and 2,861 deaths were reported on Thursday even while U.S. COVID hospitalizations are also at record levels. Experts project the death toll is set to surpass 3,000 per day. Americans have been urged to voluntarily wear face masks -- in a general atmosphere of lax public discipline. A new national strategy has been promised that will impose mask mandates in federal buildings and control interstate travel.  

Should all go as planned with authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, 20 million Americans could be vaccinated before the end of the current year, according to FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn. It is expected that the first shipment of millions of coronavirus vaccine will be shared by states and federal agencies, albeit initially falling far short of protecting all high-priority groups, including health-care workers.

WHO's director-general added that the pandemic will be around for quite a while yet, that decisions made by citizens and governments would ultimately determine the course of the virus in the short run, as well as when the pandemic would finally end. Since the start of the pandemic to the present, U.S. cases have surpassed 14 million, with over 100,000 Americans hospitalized. 

 

Close to 539,000 COVID-19 deaths by April 1 has been projected by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, University of Washington, almost doubling the current death toll. On the other hand, should the American public begin wearing face masks in public in the majority within the next short while, an estimated 66,000 lives could be saved, according to the institute's best-case scenario.

 

California’s daily reports of coronavirus cases have tripled in the last month, which could lead to new restrictions in several regions, including Los Angeles.  Credit...Philip Cheung for The New York Times