2.5 Million Getting COVID-19 Vaccines per Day in US, CDC Warns New Variants May Cause ‘Avoidable Surge’

A healthcare worker prepares a COVID-19 vaccine at Lestonnac Health Clinic in Orange, Calif., on March 9, 2021. John Fredricks/The Epoch Times

About 2.5 million people are receiving COVID-19 vaccines per day in the United States, according to the Biden administration, while the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warns of an “avoidable surge” amid increases in cases attributed to new variants of the CCP virus.

Andrew Slavitt, acting administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Service (CMS), told reporters at a virtual press conference that the 2.5 million figure was an increase from 900,000 per day at the start of the Biden administration.

“This weekend was the first time that the U.S. reported vaccinating more than 3 million people on consecutive days,” he said Monday.

Nearly one in three adults, or a total of 81 million people in the country, have had at least one vaccine dose, and 44 million people are fully vaccinated, Slavitt said. Of the senior population, nearly 69 percent have received their first vaccination, and 42 percent are fully vaccinated, he added.

CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said that some U.S. states are seeing “a growing proportion” of their CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus cases attributed to variants.

“The newly identified variant, B.1427/B.1429, is estimated to account for 52 percent of cases in California, 41 percent in Nevada, and 25 percent in Arizona,” she said. “And the B117 variant is estimated to be responsible for 9 percent of cases in New Jersey and 8 percent in Florida.”

Separately, New York City’s local B.1.526 variant and the UK variant (B.1.1.7) together account for about 51 percent of cases, according to local officials on March 10.

Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention testifies during a Senate hearing on the federal COVID-19 response on Capitol Hill in Washington, on March 18, 2021. Susan Walsh/Pool/Getty Images

Walensky expressed concerns that “another avoidable surge” in COVID-19 cases could occur and urged the public to take steps to mitigate the spread.

“We are at a critical point in this pandemic, a fork in the road, where we as a country must decide which path we are going to take. We must act now. And I am worried that if we don’t take the right actions now, we will have another avoidable surge, just as we are seeing in Europe right now and just as we are so aggressively scaling up vaccination,” Walensky said.

“Take the steps we know work to stop COVID-19: Wear a well-fitted mask, socially distant, avoid crowds and travel, and be ready to roll up your sleeve to get vaccinated when the vaccine is available to you.”

Lockdowns have been imposed throughout parts of Europe as the region faces a third surge in CCP virus cases, including in regions of France, Italy, and Spain. Most other European nations are under partial lockdowns or have curfews.