U.S.A.
Page 10 n THE ASIAN REPORTER
October 4, 2021
U.S. hits 700,000 COVID deaths just as cases begin to fall
By Amy Forliti and Carla K. Johnson
The Associated Press
M
INNEAPOLIS — The United States reached its
latest heartbreaking pandemic milestone on
October 1, eclipsing 700,000 deaths from
COVID-19 just as the surge from the delta variant is
starting to slow down and give overwhelmed hospitals
some relief.
It took 3½ months for the U.S. to go from 600,000 to
700,000 deaths, driven by the variant’s rampant spread
through unvaccinated Americans. The death toll is larger
than the population of Boston.
This milestone is especially frustrating to public health
leaders and medical professionals on the frontlines
because vaccines have been available to all eligible
Americans for nearly six months and the shots
overwhelmingly protect against hospitalizations and
death. An estimated 70 million eligible Americans remain
unvaccinated, providing kindling for the variant.
“You lose patients from COVID and it should not
happen,” said Debi Delapaz, a nurse manager at UF
Health Jacksonville who recalled how the hospital was at
one point losing eight patients a day to COVID-19 during
the summer surge. “This is something that should not
happen.”
Despite the rising death toll, there are signs of
improvement.
Nationwide, the number of people now in the hospital
with COVID-19 has fallen to somewhere around 75,000
from over 93,000 in early September. New cases are on the
downswing at about 112,000 per day on average, a drop of
about one-third over the past 2½ weeks.
Deaths, too, appear to be declining, averaging about
1,900 a day versus more than 2,000 about a week ago.
The easing of the summer surge has been attributed to
more mask wearing and more people getting vaccinated.
The decrease in case numbers could also be due to the
virus having burned through susceptible people and
running out of fuel in some places.
In another development, Merck said October 1 that its
experimental pill for people sick with COVID-19 reduced
hospitalizations and deaths by half. If it wins
authorization from regulators, it will be the first pill for
treating COVID-19 — and an important, easy-to-use new
weapon in the arsenal against the pandemic.
All treatments now authorized in the U.S. against the
coronavirus require an IV or injection.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious
disease specialist, warned that some may see the
encouraging trends as a reason to remain unvaccinated.
“It’s good news we’re starting to see the curves” coming
down, he said. “That is not an excuse to walk away from
the issue of needing to get vaccinated.”
Unknowns include how flu season may strain already
depleted hospital staffs and whether those who have
refused to get vaccinated will change their minds.
“If you’re not vaccinated or have protection from natural
infection, this virus will find you,” warned Mike
Osterholm, director of the University of Minnesota’s
Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy.
Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center in Baton
Rouge, Louisiana, began seeing a surge of COVID-19
hospitalizations in mid-July, and by the first week of
August, the place was beyond capacity. It stopped elective
surgeries and brought in military doctors and nurses to
help care for patients.
With cases now down, the military team is scheduled to
leave at the end of October.
Still, the hospital’s chief medical officer, Dr. Catherine
O’Neal, said the rate of hospitalizations isn’t decreasing
as quickly as cases in the community because the delta
variant is affecting more young people who are otherwise
healthy and are living much longer in the intensive care
unit (ICU) on ventilators.
“It creates a lot of ICU patients that don’t move
anywhere,” she said. And many of the patients aren’t
going home at all. In the last few weeks, the hospital saw
several days with more than five COVID-19 deaths daily,
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Difficulty
MEDIUM
level: Medium
#48231
# 53
Instructions: Fill in the grid so that the digits 1
through 9 appear one time each in every row, col-
umn, and 3x3 box.
Solution to
last issue’s
puzzle
Puzzle #89725 (Easy)
Bibimbap is now hiring full-time & part-time
SERVERS & COOKS . Experience in
Korean cuisine helpful but not required.
All solutions available at
<www.sudoku.com>.
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TRAGIC MILESTONE. Nursing coordinator Beth Springer looks
into a patient’s room in a COVID-19 ward at the Willis-Knighton Medical
Center in Shreveport, Louisiana. A decline in COVID-19 cases in the
United States over the last several weeks has given overwhelmed hospi-
tals some relief, but administrators are bracing for yet another possible
surge as cold weather drives people indoors. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert,
File)
including one day when there were 10 deaths.
“We lost another dad in his 40s just a few days ago,”
O’Neal said. “It’s continuing to happen. And that’s what
the tragedy of COVID is.”
As for where the outbreak goes from here, “I have to tell
you, my crystal ball has broken multiple times in the last
two years,” she said. But she added that the hospital has
to be prepared for another surge at the end of November,
as flu season also ramps up.
Dr. Sandra Kemmerly, system medical director for
hospital quality at Ochsner Health in Louisiana, said this
fourth surge of the pandemic has been harder. “It’s just
frustrating for people to die of vaccine-preventable
illnesses,” she said.
At the peak of this most recent wave, Ochsner hospitals
had 1,074 COVID-19 patients on August 9. That had
dropped to 208 as of September 30.
Other hospitals are seeing decreases as well. The
University of Mississippi Medical Center had 146
hospitalized COVID-19 patients at its mid-August peak.
That was down to 39 on October 1. Lexington Medical
Center in West Columbia, South Carolina, had more than
190 in early September but just 49 on October 1.
But Kemmerly doesn’t expect the decrease to last. “I
fully expect to see more hospitalizations due to COVID,”
she said.
Like many other health professionals, Natalie Dean, a
professor of biostatistics at Emory University, is taking a
cautious view about the winter.
It is unclear if the coronavirus will take on the seasonal
pattern of the flu, with predictable peaks in the winter as
people gather indoors for the holidays. Simply because of
the nation’s size and diversity, there will be places that
have outbreaks and surges, she said.
What’s more, the uncertainties of human behavior
complicate the picture. People react to risk by taking
precautions, which slows viral transmission. Then,
feeling safer, people mingle more freely, sparking a new
wave of contagion.
“Infectious disease models are different from weather
models,” Dean said. “A hurricane doesn’t change its course
because of what the model said.”
One influential model, from the University of Washing-
ton, projects new cases will bump up again this fall, but
vaccine protection and infection-induced immunity will
Continued on page 13
Festival season returns to Nepal
amid declining COVID-19 cases
Continued from page 3
The Indra Jatra festival marks the end of monsoon
rains and the beginning of autumn. It also celebrates the
end of the rice farming season.
Armed police guarded the alleys and roads leading to
the main courtyard while volunteers sprayed sanitizers
and distributed masks to the devotees.
Officials, priests, religious leaders, and organizers held
several meetings before deciding to go ahead with the
public festival.
“If we continue to halt the festival every year because of
COVID-19, there is a big chance that our tradition and
rituals could just fade away. We want to save our tradition
and heritage but at the same time keep everyone safe from
the virus,” said Gautam Shakya, the priest and main
caretaker of Kumari.
Gautam said they have been making public appeals to
keep away from the main venues of the festivals as far as
possible, fearing the spread of the coronavirus.
“We are asking people to understand that to save the
tradition, rituals, and heritage, they should keep away
from the venue this year and if you are safe, then you can
watch these festivals in the many years to come,” he said.
Kiran Shakya of the government’s Trust Corporation,
which is in charge of the festivals, said special security
arrangements were made to control the crowds and follow
health protocols.
“We want to set an example of how a popular festival
can be held safely,” he said.
Bishnu Lal shrestha, who was among the throngs of
jubilant devotees waiting along the narrow streets to
receive Kumari’s blessing, said he was thrilled that the
festivals are back after two years.
“We are praying that the gathering of devotees will not
be a reason for another spread of the coronavirus but the
gods will protect us,” Shrestha said.
Nepal has imposed several lockdowns and other
restrictions since the pandemic hit.