A senior official in the Biden Administration told CNN that the White House is currently predicting around 100 million infections during the approaching fall and winter months - a time of the year where new case records have been set during both years of the pandemic.
However, according to Johns Hopkins University data, around 40 million COVID cases were reported in America from September 1 to February 28. While this is possibly a harsh undercount because of the highly infectious, yet mild, nature of the Omicron variant, it suggests the White House assumes case figures could reach even further heights this year compared to last.
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Specialists have long suggested that the next big spread of the virus would occur during the cold weather months of fall and winter and that America would avoid the type of summer surge that struck in both 2020 and 2021 because much of the population already has large immunity to the virus due to the COVID-19 vaccines and previous infections during the record-breaking winter Omicron surge.
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Cases are beginning to increase this spring, though, leaping 25 percent over the past week to 72,899 per day. However, deaths have not kept pace with issues during the Omicron period of the pandemic, and the country is currently recording 551 COVID deaths every day, according to the most recent data from Hopkins.
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The White House projections assume that there are no vaccine mitigation measures, like more lockdowns or mask mandates, in effect between now and then, no new variants that suggest a major change in the complexion of the pandemic, or that the administration does not obtain any new funding to keep some virus programs in place, CNN reports.
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President Biden has urged Congress to pass more funding to allow the federal government to continue buying tests and therapeutics and other virus surveillance and prevention measures. A massive $22.5 billion relief proposal suggested by the White House was removed from a spending package.
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Many in Congress and the total American population are ready to move beyond the pandemic. Instead, there is clamoring to use the funds elsewhere and not in COVID prevention.
As a result, some programs created by federal and state officials during the pandemic have been reverted. The government no longer covers COVID treatment in hospitals. Free testing has been rolled back in much of the country as well.