The director of the CDC has suggested that the health agency could soon issue a new mask guidance during a news briefing Wednesday.

The change could be announced as soon as next week, as White House officials asked Walensky to provide an update by March 1, before the president’s State of the Union Address.

Dr. Rochelle Walensky suggested the mask recommendations would be based on a community’s hospitalization rates.

She added that this would allow people to take a break from wearing masks when COVID-19 case numbers improve.

However, this would not be a permanent change.

If a community’s case numbers spike up, masks will have to go back on.

Walensky said Wednesday that people should still continue to wear masks in certain situations, including when people are symptomatic or are within ten days of positive diagnosis.

The agency is still working out the details of when masks are and are not necessary.

The change in guidance will come as a number of states announce their own modifications to COVID-19 safety measures.

Last week, ten states announce they were lifting mask mandates in indoor spaces and/or schools.

Dr. Anthony Fauci has expressed support in allowing states to make these changes as cases decrease.

“At the local level, there is a strong feeling of need to get back to normality,” said Fauci on MSNBC.

During what has been another devastating surge of COVID-19 across the country, there is good news: Some states are starting to see infection numbers and hospitalizations drop. But that's not the case everywhere.

As cases seem to begin plateauing, COVID-19 hospitalizations in the Northeast are down by about 11% after reaching a peak about a week ago and have also dropped slightly — about 6% — in the Midwest region, according to data from the Department of Health and Human Services. And new COVID-19 hospital admissions are beginning to decline nationwide, a sign that total hospitalizations may soon begin going down too in every part of the country.

The agency's data includes both patients who are hospitalized because of COVID-19 complications and patients who may have been admitted for something else but tested positive for COVID-19. That has been true throughout the pandemic, but the share of patients who fall into each category may have changed over time.

"All of the current data is showing very encouraging trends, with many of our key health metrics consistently and substantially declining," Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan said Thursday. "But we're not out of the woods. Even though we have been able to attain considerable drops in the metrics, and they're continuing to drop, they're still much higher than they have been or where we need to be."

Also this week, Illinois Gov. J. B. Pritzker announced the state was seeing a decline in COVID-19 hospitalizations, and ICU and ventilator usage, and in Connecticut, Gov. Ned Lamont said cases and hospitalizations were also going down.

And in New York, the state's "percent positivity is in the single-digits," for the first time since Dec. 20, Gov. Kathy Hochul said Friday.

But in other parts of the country, a different picture. COVID-19 hospitalization numbers were up about 15% over the past week in the West and up by about 6% in the South — with many hospitals stretched thin from the surge in patients and the severe staffing shortages.

In North Carolina, where health officials say the omicron variant "is sending record numbers of people" to hospitals, the Department of Health and Human Services and North Carolina Emergency Management requested federal support Friday for the Charlotte region to help stressed hospital systems. In a news release, health officials said hospitalization numbers could increase further this month. The vast majority of people hospitalized with the virus are not vaccinated, officials said.

Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson announced Friday that COVID-19 hospitalization increased to a record of 1,658, but said he is "hopeful we will see the cases go down." In West Virginia, where COVID-19 hospitalizations are continuing to rise, Gov Jim. Justice appealed to residents to get their vaccines and boosters, saying not doing so would be a "real mistake."

"Getting vaccinated or getting boosted stacks the deck to keep you out of the hospital -- I'm living proof," said Justice, who tested positive for the virus earlier this month.

Tracking the omicron surge

CDC weighs 'pivot' on language on vaccinations

As the highly contagious omicron variant continues to spread, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is working to "pivot" its language around what it means to be fully vaccinated, Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said in a White House briefing Friday.

But the director stopped short of saying the definition of fully vaccinated needs to change, and instead focused on what it means to be "up to date" on COVID-19 vaccinations.

Fully vaccinated people who are eligible to receive a booster dose of vaccine but are not boosted are not considered "up-to-date" on their vaccinations, Walensky said.

"What we really are working to do is pivot the language to make sure that everybody is as up to date with their COVID-19 vaccines as they personally could be, should be, based on when they got their last vaccine," Walensky said.

"So, importantly, right now, we're pivoting our language. We really want to make sure people are up to date," she added.

Speaking to CNN's Wolf Blitzer on Friday, Dr. Anthony Fauci said that the CDC hasn't updated its definition of "fully vaccinated" because their recommendations are about "how well you are protected rather than a definition."

"It becomes almost a matter of semantics," said Fauci, who noted the terminology can confuse people.

"One of the things that we're talking about from a purely public health standpoint is how well you are protected, rather than what a definition is to get someone to be required or not required," said Fauci, the nation's leading infectious disease expert.

Roughly 63.3% of the U.S. population is fully vaccinated, according to CDC data. Of those people, only about 39.5% have received their booster shots.

New studies make powerful argument for boosters

Three new large studies from the CDC highlight the importance of getting a booster.

Getting boosted was 90% effective at preventing hospitalizations during a period in December and January when omicron was the dominant variant, according to a CDC study that looked at nearly 88,000 hospitalizations across 10 states. In comparison, getting two shots was 57% effective when it had been at least six months past the second shot.

Getting boosted was 82% effective at preventing visits to emergency rooms and urgent care centers, according to the study, which looked at more than 200,000 visits in 10 states. In comparison, getting two shots was only 38% effective at preventing those visits when it had been at least six months past the second shot. That study was published Friday in the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

A second study, published in the same place, concluded people with three shots were less likely to get infected with Omicron. And the third study, to be published in the medical journal JAMA, showed that having a booster helped prevent people from becoming ill with Omicron.

"I think it's the third dose that really gives you the solid, the very best protection," Dr. William Schaffner, a longtime CDC vaccine adviser who was not involved with the studies, said.

An intensive care physician said the COVID-19 situation in her hospital is worse now than it ever has been.

Hospital officials at Elliot Hospital in New Hampshire report the intensive care unit typically has 14 beds. The surge this week is up to 26 ICU patients, and most are battling COVID-19.

There are so many sick patients, the hospital opened a surge ICU on the fifth floor and now the state is making contingency plans for what they call a disruption in post-mortem care — more bodies than the hospital morgue can hold.

“They're sicker. They're younger. A lot of them don't have any pre-existing conditions and it's scary,” Dr. Laura McPhee, of Elliot Hospital’s intensive care unit, said.

McPhee was working Wednesday, which is normally her day off.

“We have so many patients in the ICU right now that we are all pulling extra shifts and coming in extra days to work,” McPhee said.

The doctor has been keeping a video diary.

“We're caring for three to four times as many patients as we ever have and we don't have enough staff to do so. We're tired. It's been extremely hard on everybody,” McPhee said.

>> Elliot Hospital workers share what they're experiencing during COVID-19 surge

The Disaster Medical Assistance Team deployed to assist front-line health care workers at Elliot Hospital is leaving Wednesday. Hospital officials said the two-week mission cut down emergency department triage time and allowed 47 patients to get care faster.

“We knew this day would have to come that they would have to leave, but we are grateful to have had them for the time that we had, which was some of the most extraordinary volume levels for us,” Tate Curti, chief operating officer at Elliot Hospital, said.

There’s a refrigerator truck in the back of the hospital for overflow from the morgue – a grim reminder of COVID-19’s most devastating effects.

“We are not using that piece of equipment now. As I understand it, a number of them will be distributed geographically throughout the state. We are but one facility who has one,” Curti said.

“This doesn't have to happen. I've not ever seen a patient here in the ICU who's been fully vaccinated with the booster. Not one,” McPhee said.

McPhee recalled thinking the end was in sight over the summer when they had no COVID-19-positive patients in ICU. She is incredulous to realize it's worse right now than it's ever been. She said this is all preventable.

According to a report from the American Academy of Pediatrics. more than 7 million children in the U.S. have contracted COVID-19 since the pandemic started and hospitalizations are up.

The report notes that more children are contracting the virus as the omicron variant spreads.

As of Dec. 16, the AAP said almost 7.4 million children have tested positive since the pandemic began.

Cases among children are extremely high, with nearly 170,000 child cases being added in the past week.

The rate of pediatric hospitalizations is high in New York, Ohio, Texas, and Pennsylvania, The Washington Post reported.

According to CNN, in New York, 109 children have been hospitalized between Dec. 11 to Dec. 23, compared to 23 hospitalizations between Dec. 5 to Dec. 11.

States reported that 1.8%-4.1% of their children with COVID resulted in hospitalizations, the AAP reported.

FRANKFORT, Ky. — After long-term care residents and healthcare workers, Kentucky plans to give COVID-19 vaccines to people age 70 and older, first responders and K-12 school personnel possibly starting in early February.

Public Health Commissioner Dr. Steven Stack said Monday that it is crucial to begin vaccinating people age 70 or older, who are most at-risk of complications due to COVID-19 and make up 75% of all COVID-19 deaths in Kentucky.

“This is clearly the population at greatest risk for serious medical needs, requiring hospitalization and intensive care unit care, and also the population at greatest risk for death,” Stack said.

Phase 1b also includes police officers and firefighters, and most emergency medical responders are already vaccinated in the first phase.

K-12 school personnel includes educators, bus drivers, custodians, housekeeping and other workers who might come in direct contact with students or school buildings. Off-site or administration personnel will have to wait to receive a COVID-19 vaccine, Stack said.

Gov. Andy Beshear said that "Phase 1a" (healthcare workers, long-term care residents and staff) will end and "Phase 1b" (people over 70, first responders, K-12 personnel) could begin around Feb. 1. Both Beshear and Stack asked Kentuckians for patience as health officials work to distribute the vaccine.

Kentucky expects to receive roughly 202,000 doses of Pfizer and Moderna's COVID-19 vaccines by the end of December. More than 26,300 doses have already been administered in hospitals and long-term care centers, and 40 additional facilities will receive some amount of vaccines by the end of this week, Beshear said.

For questions on COVID-19 vaccines and their distribution, call Kentucky's 24-hour hotline at (800) 722-5725 or visit Kentucky's vaccine webpage.

COVID-19 case numbers decreasing

At his briefing Monday, Gov. Beshear announced that numbers of new COVID-19 cases appear to be falling.

“We have certainly stopped the exponential growth, this third wave, and I believe that we've not only plateaued it, but we’re starting to see cases decrease,” Beshear said.

Beshear reported 1,455 new cases and eight coronavirus-related deaths on Monday. Since March, 258,517 COVID-19 cases and 2,563 virus-related deaths have been reported in Kentucky. Holiday lab closures and an AT&T outage caused by an RV bombing in Nashville may have affected case reporting, as those labs enter new cases using the internet, Beshear said.

Beshear added that reported deaths may remain high as they lag weeks behind last fall's exponential case growth. He also recognized the "sacrifices" Kentucky businesses made to slow the spread of COVID-19 cases.

“Those sacrifices were not in vain, as the rest of the country sees continuing increases in cases, as the rest of the country sees runs out of ICU beds and hospital beds," the governor said. "At this moment, we’ve stopped that from happening in Kentucky, but we can let this success go. We’ve gotta keep it up -- otherwise we can be back very quickly to a more dangerous place."

Hospitalizations remained high Monday, with 1,552 Kentuckians currently hospitalized for COVID-19, 411 people in intensive care units and 217 on ventilators.

Kentucky's COVID-19 test positivity rate has fallen to 7.97% on Monday. The state's fatality rate, the proportion of people who die out of people who test positive for the virus, hovers at 0.97%.

Using the state's contact tracing database, NKY Health reports 2,407 active coronavirus cases in Boone, Campbell, Grant and Kenton counties, and 19,579 people have recovered from the virus as of Monday. Since the pandemic began, 164 Northern Kentuckians have died from the virus.

Where to get tested for free in NKY

St. Elizabeth Healthcare and Covington's Gravity Diagnostics offer free, appointment-only drive-thru testing at 25 Atlantic Ave in Erlanger, the former Toyota HQ building off Mineola Pike.

The site is open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. You will be able to collect your own sample without leaving your vehicle and receive results within three to five days.

Additionally, appointment-only drive-up testing is available through St. E at 7200 Alexandria Pike, Alexandria. The free testing site is open on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Schedule an appointment at those sites online at www.stelizabeth.com/covid-testing. To find all coronavirus testing locations near you, click here.

Watch a replay of Monday's briefing in the player below:

FRANKFORT, Ky. — At his final COVID-19 briefing of 2020, Gov. Andy Beshear again asked Kentuckians to keep their New Year's celebrations small, especially as the state is seeing the number of new coronavirus cases decreasing.

“2021 is the year we’re going to beat COVID-19, but to do that, I need everybody -- everybody -- to keep their New Year’s Eve gathering small,” he said Tuesday.

Beshear announced that he has renewed Kentucky’s mask mandate for another 30 days effective Jan. 2, and he also extended Kentucky’s eviction moratorium through Jan. 31.

"I need people to try, for them to do their duty. I need business owners to enforce this (mask mandate). Restaurants and bars, part of being able to operate in a pandemic that spreads when people take their masks off. Is to make people wear them every moment they're not eating or drinking," Beshear said.

A third order allowing pharmacists to dispense emergency refills of up to a 30-day supply of non-scheduled medications was also extended.

The governor reported 2,990 new cases, down from last week, and 31 coronavirus-related deaths on Tuesday, including an 88-year-old woman from Boone County. Beshear said the higher number of deaths lag behind the case numbers from exponential case growth seen in late fall.

Since March, 261,492 COVID-19 cases and 2,594 virus-related deaths have been reported in Kentucky.

Hospitalizations increased Tuesday, with 1,635 Kentuckians currently hospitalized for COVID-19, 380 people in intensive care units and 211 on ventilators.

Kentucky's COVID-19 test positivity rate rose slightly to 8.41% on Tuesday. The state's fatality rate, the proportion of people who die out of people who test positive for the virus, hovers at 0.99%.

Using the state's contact tracing database, NKY Health reports 2,317 active coronavirus cases in Boone, Campbell, Grant and Kenton counties, and 19,915 people have recovered from the virus as of Tuesday. Since the pandemic began, 165 Northern Kentuckians have died from the virus.

Federal relief coming to KY

The latest federal COVID-19 relief bill includes $600 payments to individuals, equating to roughly $2.2 billion for Kentuckians. If Congress's latest effort to secure $2,000 payments for individuals is approved, Beshear said that could send about $5 billion more to Kentucky residents.

Beshear said nearly $297 million is expected for eviction relief and utility relief. Eligible unemployed Kentuckians can expect an additional $300 per week assistance for 11 weeks, about $489 million total.

The relief bill also includes education, transportation, and family and senior program funding. There is no timeline yet for distributing payments to individuals or the state receiving these funds.

"We hope while there will be a lot of use this year, that we'll see significant dollars to remediation," Beshear said. "Catching kids up that have fallen behind during the pandemic."

Who gets the COVID-19 vaccine next?

After long-term care residents and healthcare workers, Kentucky plans to give COVID-19 vaccines to people age 70 and older, first responders and K-12 school personnel possibly starting in early February.

"Phase 1a" (healthcare workers, long-term care residents and staff) will end and "Phase 1b" (people over 70, first responders, K-12 personnel) could begin around Feb. 1, Beshear said.

Phase 1b also includes police officers and firefighters, while most emergency medical responders will already be vaccinated in the first phase. K-12 school personnel includes those who come in contact with students or school buildings. Off-site or administration personnel will have to wait to receive a COVID-19 vaccine.

Kentucky expects to receive roughly 202,000 doses of Pfizer and Moderna's COVID-19 vaccines by the end of December, with just under 54,000 expected to arrive the first week of January. Nearly 29,000 doses have already been administered in hospitals and long-term care centers, and 40 more facilities will receive some amount of vaccines by the end of this week.

For questions on COVID-19 vaccines and their distribution, call Kentucky's 24-hour hotline at (800) 722-5725 or visit Kentucky's vaccine webpage.

Where to get tested for free in NKY

St. Elizabeth Healthcare and Covington's Gravity Diagnostics offer free, appointment-only drive-thru testing at 25 Atlantic Ave in Erlanger, the former Toyota HQ building off Mineola Pike.

The site is open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. You will be able to collect your own sample without leaving your vehicle and receive results within three to five days.

Additionally, appointment-only drive-up testing is available through St. E at 7200 Alexandria Pike, Alexandria. The free testing site is open on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Schedule an appointment at those sites online at www.stelizabeth.com/covid-testing. To find all coronavirus testing locations near you, click here.

Watch a replay of the briefing in the player below:

Video above: Johns Hopkins experts cautiously optimistic amid downward COVID-19 trendsIt’s a milestone that by all accounts didn’t have to happen this soon.The U.S. death toll from COVID-19 eclipsed 700,000 late Friday — a number greater than the population of Boston. The last 100,000 deaths occurred during a time when vaccines — which overwhelmingly prevent deaths, hospitalizations and serious illness — were available to any American over the age of 12.The milestone is deeply frustrating to doctors, public health officials and the American public, who watched a pandemic that had been easing earlier in the summer take a dark turn. Tens of millions of Americans have refused to get vaccinated, allowing the highly contagious delta variant to tear through the country and send the death toll from 600,000 to 700,000 in 3 1/2 months.Florida suffered by far the most death of any state during that period, with the virus killing about 17,000 residents since the middle of June. Texas was second with 13,000 deaths. The two states account for 15% of the country's population, but more than 30% of the nation's deaths since the nation crossed the 600,000 threshold.Dr. David Dowdy, an infectious disease epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health who has analyzed publicly reported state data, said it's safe to say at least 70,000 of the last 100,000 deaths were in unvaccinated people. And of those vaccinated people who died with breakthrough infections, most caught the virus from an unvaccinated person, he said.“If we had been more effective in our vaccination, then I think it’s fair to say, we could have prevented 90% of those deaths,” since mid-June, Dowdy said.“It’s not just a number on a screen,” Dowdy said. “It’s tens of thousands of these tragic stories of people whose families have lost someone who means the world to them."Danny Baker is one of them.The 28-year-old seed hauler from Riley, Kansas, contracted COVID-19 over the summer, spent more than a month in the hospital and died Sept. 14. He left behind a wife and a 7-month-old baby girl.“This thing has taken a grown man, 28-year-old young man, 6′2″, 300-pound man, and took him down like it was nothing,” said his father, 56-year-old J.D. Baker, of Milford, Kansas. “And so if young people think that they’re still ... protected because of their youth and their strength, it’s not there anymore.”In the early days of the pandemic, Danny Baker, who was a championship trap shooter in high school and loved hunting and fishing, insisted he would be first in line for a vaccine, recalled his mother.But just as vaccinations opened up to his age group, the U.S. recommended a pause in use of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine to investigate reports of rare but potentially dangerous blood clots. The news frightened him, as did information swirling online that the vaccine could harm fertility, though medical experts say there’s no biological reason the shots would affect fertility.His wife also was breastfeeding, so they decided to wait. Health experts now say breastfeeding mothers should get the vaccine for their own protection and that it may even provide some protection for their babies through antibodies passed along in breastmilk.“There’s just a lot of miscommunication about the vaccine,” said his wife, 27-year-old Aubrea Baker, a labor and delivery nurse, adding that her husband's death inspired a Facebook page and at least 100 people to get vaccinated. “It’s not that we weren’t going to get it. We just hadn’t gotten it yet.”When deaths surpassed 600,000 in mid-June, vaccinations already were driving down caseloads, restrictions were being lifted and people looked forward to life returning to normal over the summer. Deaths per day in the U.S. had plummeted to an average of around 340, from a high of over 3,000 in mid-January. Soon afterward, health officials declared it a pandemic of the unvaccinated.But as the delta variant swept the country, caseloads and deaths soared — especially among the unvaccinated and younger people, with hospitals around the country reporting dramatic increases in admissions and deaths among people under 65. They also reported breakthrough infections and deaths, though at far lower rates, prompting efforts to provide booster shots to vulnerable Americans.Now, daily deaths are averaging about 1,900 a day. Cases have started to fall from their highs in September but there is fear that the situation could worsen in the winter months when colder weather drives people inside.Almost 65% of Americans have had at least one dose of vaccine, while about 56% are fully vaccinated, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.But millions are either refusing or still on the fence because of fear, misinformation and political beliefs. Health care workers report being threatened by patients and community members who don't believe COVID-19 is real.The first known deaths from the virus in the U.S. were in early February 2020. It took four months to reach the first 100,000 deaths. During the most lethal phase of the disaster, in the winter of 2020-21, it took just over a month to go from 300,000 to 400,000 deaths.The U.S. reached 500,000 deaths in mid-February, when the country was still in the midst of the winter surge and vaccines were only available to a limited number of people. The death toll stood about 570,000 in April when every adult American became eligible for shots.“I remember when we broke that 100,000-death mark, people just shook their heads and said ‘Oh, my god,’” said Dr. Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association. “Then we said, ‘Are we going to get to 200,000?’ Then we kept looking at 100,000-death marks,” and finally surpassed the estimated 675,000 American deaths from the 1918-19 flu pandemic.“And we’re not done yet,” Benjamin said.The deaths during the delta surge have been unrelenting in hotspots in the South. Almost 79 people out of every 100,000 people in Florida have died of COVID since mid-June, the highest rate in the nation.Amanda Alexander, a COVID-19 ICU nurse at Georgia’s Augusta University Medical Center, said Thursday that she'd had a patient die on each of her previous three shifts.“I’ve watched a 20-year-old die. I’ve watched 30-year-olds, 40-year-olds,” with no pre-existing conditions that would have put them at greater risk, she said. “Ninety-nine percent of our patients are unvaccinated. And it’s just so frustrating because the facts just don’t lie and we’re seeing it every day.”___Associated Press Medical Writer Carla K. Johnson and data journalist Justin Myers contributed to this story.

As the U.S. ushered in 2021, more than 125,300 COVID-19 patients remained hospitalized — another record for the fourth day in a row.

The high count is a grim reminder that even with 2020 behind us, the pandemic continues to ravage parts of the country.

And some local leaders warn the worst is still ahead. "We are still going to have our toughest and darkest days," Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti told CNN.

Los Angeles County, as well as the state of California, have battled brutal surges of infections, hospitalizations and deaths in the past weeks, all driven in part by Thanksgiving gatherings, health officials said. Surging hospitalizations in the county are pushing hospitals to the "brink of catastrophe," said Dr. Christina Ghaly, Los Angeles County Health Services director.

In Georgia, Gov. Brian Kemp said a convention center will begin accepting patients at the end of this week and will have an additional 60 beds to "help ensure that our hospitals continue to have the capacity they need for COVID and non-COVID patients."

Arizona health officials say the number of new cases remains high, with hospitalization and death tallies also increasing.

"Even without COVID-19, winter is an especially busy season for hospitals. Amid this pandemic and the surge in cases, more than 90% of intensive care unit beds are in use this week, with more than half of those beds occupied by COVID-19 patients," Dr. Cara Christ, director of the Arizona Department of Health Services, said in a video message posted to Twitter.

And experts have warned the grim numbers could climb further nationwide in the coming weeks — a swells stemming from the gatherings and travels that took place over the holidays.

Despite repeated calls from both local and state leaders for people to celebrate with only members of their household, millions of Americans opted to spend time away from home. On Wednesday, the Transportation Security Administration reported its fourth-busiest day of the pandemic, screening more than a million people for the fifth straight day.

How vaccine distributions are going

Vaccinations are ongoing across the country but experts say it will be months before vaccines are widespread enough to turn the course of the pandemic.

Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards on Thursday announced doses of the COVID-19 vaccine will be available to pharmacies in limited supply starting Jan. 4 to be administered to people who are 70 and older as well health care workers.

The initial supply, the governor's office said, will be "extremely limited and people must contact a designated pharmacy to make appointments before going in to be vaccinated."

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Thursday he hoped the city can administer a million doses by the end of January.

"Like any good New Year's resolution, one million doses by the end of January is an ambitious goal to say the least," he said. "We are doing everything we can to vaccinate as many New Yorkers as possible, but to really pick up the pace, we need our federal and state partners on board — and fast. It will be tough, but I believe that we can do it."

As distribution expands to the general public, the mayor said that the vaccine will be available to hard-hit neighborhoods first.

So far, more than 12.4 million vaccine doses have been distributed nationwide and more than 2.7 million have been administered. The roll-out has been slower than many officials expected, but if the U.S. is able to "catch up" in 2021, widespread vaccination could be possible starting in April, Dr. Anthony Fauci said.

"Let's say in April, it will be what I call "open season," namely, anybody who wants to get vaccinated can get vaccinated," Fauci said. "If we then diligently vaccinate people in April, May, June, July, then we will gradually and noticeably get a degree of protection approaching herd immunity."

By the time early fall rolls around, Fauci said, "we will have enough good herd immunity to be able to really get back to some strong semblance of normality."

Florida has evidence of UK variant case

Meanwhile, more states are now beginning to report cases of the Covid-19 variant that was first detected in the U.K.

Florida health officials announced the state has evidence of the first case of the variant in a man in his 20s with no history of travel.

"The Department is working with the CDC on this investigation. We encourage all to continue practicing Covid-19 mitigation," the state's health department wrote on Twitter.

California health officials also said earlier this week the variant was detected in a 30-year-old San Diego man, who is not hospitalized and had very few social interactions during his potential contagious period.

The first known case of the variant in the U.S. was identified in Colorado, in a man in his 20s who has no travel history.

But experts have said they expect there are likely many more cases across the country that have just not been detected.

"An unknown travel history means that this person picked it up the community," Dr. Atul Gawande, a member of the Biden-Harris transition Covid-19 advisory board, previously told CNN.

"If this mutation, this mutated virus, which is more contagious, is not widespread yet and beginning to spread, that means it will be even more important to follow the approaches we know work," he said.

Some governors are beginning to report encouraging signs in their state's COVID-19 numbers, but warn of what could come next if more people don't get vaccinated.

COVID-19 hospitalizations and ICU utilization have decreased over the past week in Kentucky, Gov. Andy Beshear announced at a Thursday news conference.

"We are in a decline and we hope it continues for people hospitalized because of COVID," the governor said.

"This is more people getting vaccinated. This is more people wearing their masks. Keep it up," Beshear added, warning COVID-19 hospitalization and ICU numbers in the state are still very high and could tick back up.

Also Thursday, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan announced the state's COVID-19 positivity rate has dropped 20% in the past month and hospitalizations are down 60% from their peak. On the same day, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp said that while the state has seen a "significant decline in cases, hospitalizations and percent positive tests" in the past weeks, there could be another surge soon.

"Today, I want to emphasize the importance of not waiting until the next wave of COVID cases to get vaccinated," Kemp said. "Given that our increase in cases and hospitalizations in 2021 were similar in timing to surges seen in 2020, we can only assume that a winter increase is also possible."

Across the U.S., the rate of new COVID-19 deaths is expected to decrease over the next four weeks, according to an ensemble forecast from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And for the third week in a row, Wednesday's CDC forecast predicted hospitalizations will decrease as well — a bit of hope as the more transmissible Delta variant continues to spread.

But currently, an average of nearly 2,000 people die and about 114,000 people are infected with COVID-19 every day, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

"We're going to lose a bunch more people," West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice said at a news briefing Wednesday. "All I can possibly do, with a good conscience, is continue to urge you, in every way, to get vaccinated."

Roughly 55.5% of the U.S. population is fully vaccinated, according to the CDC. Health experts can't say for sure what proportion of the population would need to be vaccinated to control the spread, but Dr. Anthony Fauci estimates that it would have to be the "vast majority."

Officials and experts are employing multiple strategies to try to increase vaccination protection.

Schools, businesses and employers have implemented mandates for students and employees to be vaccinated against the virus. And the FDA has authorized booster doses to increase vaccine protection for vulnerable populations.

About a third of parents say they'd vaccinate kids ages 5-11 right away, poll finds

Meanwhile, a slightly increasing proportion of parents may be open to children ages 5-11 getting a COVID-19 vaccine as soon as one is available to them, according to a new Kaiser Family Foundation poll.

No COVID-19 vaccine is yet authorized for ages under 12 in the U.S. But both Pfizer and Moderna have been testing various doses of their COVID-19 vaccines in children under 12, and health experts have said one could be authorized for ages 5-11 later this fall if multiple federal agencies sign off.

In a Kaiser poll published Thursday, about 34% parents of children 5-11 said they would vaccinate their child as soon as a COVID-19 vaccine became available for that age group.

That's up from 26% who said the same thing in a July poll, the foundation said. About 32% of September's respondents said they would wait to see how the vaccine was working, against 40% who said the same thing in July.

The percentage of parents saying they definitely wouldn't seek the vaccine for their child this age group, however, has barely moved. About 24% of respondents said this in September, versus 25% in July, Kaiser said.

About 7% in September said they'd allow their child to get the vaccine only if required, against 9% who said the same in July.

Kaiser noted that the bulk of the interviews for September's poll happened before Pfizer announced on Sept. 20 that its COVID-19 vaccine was safe and generated a "robust" antibody response in children ages 5-11. Pfizer is now submitting that data to the FDA ahead of anticipated attempt to seek the agency's authorization for vaccinating this age group.

The latest Kaiser poll was conducted Sept. 13-22.

Vaccine deadline in effect for California health care workers

On the local and federal level, officials are implementing vaccination mandates to increase protection.

In California, Sept. 30 was the deadline for health care facility workers to complete a COVID-19 vaccination series — unless they receive an exemption — to keep working.

The deadline included anyone who works at a health care facility, including hospitals, long- and intermediate-care facilities and doctor offices and clinics.

Under an order issued Aug. 5, the state health department ordered workers to have a second dose of a two-dose mRNA COVID-19 vaccine, or a single shot of the one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine, by Sept. 30.

The order allowed workers to ask for exemptions based on religious beliefs or qualifying medical reasons. Anyone granted an exemption was required to submit to regular COVID-19 testing: Twice a week for workers in acute health care and long-term care settings, and once weekly for workers in other health care settings.

Earlier this month, President Joe Biden announced stringent new vaccine rules on federal workers, large employers and health care staff in a sweeping attempt to contain COVID-19.

He directed the Labor Department to require all businesses with 100 or more employees ensure their workers are either vaccinated or tested once a week. Companies could face thousands of dollars in fines per employee if they don't comply.

Biden also said he would require the 17 million health care workers at facilities receiving funds from Medicare and Medicaid to be fully vaccinated, expanding the mandate to hospitals, home care facilities and dialysis centers around the country.

Those requirements are still weeks away from being implemented, but employers should expect them to come this year, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Wednesday.

New York state ordered staff at hospitals and long-term care facilities to receive at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose by last week, unless they received exemptions for medical or religious reasons. Some employees are already facing the consequences of not complying.

The St. Barnabas Hospital Health System had 58 employees who failed to show proof of vaccination as of Wednesday, spokesman Steve Clark said. The employees were suspended and have until Monday morning to show proof of vaccination. If they don't, they'll be terminated, Clark said.

"Patient care has not been compromised at all," Clark said. "Schedules have been created accordingly. People will work overtime, or part-timers or agency personnel will be brought in when necessary."

No health care facility in the state has closed as a result of any staffing shortages resulting from people not complying with the vaccine requirements, Gov. Kathy Hochul said Thursday.

As of Monday evening, 92% of nursing home staff, 89% of adult care facilities staff, and 92% of hospital staff had received at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose, the governor's office said.

New York officials are looking into expanding the vaccine requirement to health care workers at facilities that are not regulated state health department, such as prisons, Hochul said.

FRANKFORT, Ky. — Officials in Kentucky announced that efforts to identify positive COVID-19 cases and contacts may have prevented the virus from spreading to roughly 54,000 Kentuckians.

Mark Carter, the Cabinet for Health and Family Services advisor who has spearheaded Kentucky's contact tracing efforts, estimates that quarantining and contact tracing have prevented more than 2,000 hospitalizations and 400 deaths.

Contact tracing, which identifies people who may have been in contact with a person infected with COVID-19, began in Kentucky last May.

Through Kentucky's process, about 167,000 people who tested COVID-positive successfully isolated, and nearly one-third of those people were contacted within 24 hours of a positive test result. About 57% of all Kentuckians who were potentially exposed successfully quarantined, Carter said.

Due to data limitations, Carter said Tuesday's figures are a conservative estimate. Carter explained that the reasons behind those limitations include decentralized public health systems, delayed adoption of contact tracing by local health departments, lack of surge support, underreported cases and contacts as well as politicization of contact tracing.

Carter said the state has added about 1,200 contact tracing staff over the last seven months, with 60 local health departments using the state's contact tracing system. With a $78 million budget from federal funds, these efforts have spent $47.7 million so far.

Virus positivity rate rising in Kentucky

Gov. Andy Beshear reported 1,781 new COVID-19 cases, the lowest Tuesday number in several weeks, as well as 23 virus-related deaths statewide. Tuesday's report included a 95-year-old woman from Kenton County.

Kentucky's COVID-19 positivity rate rose again to 11.36% Tuesday, up from 8.41% last week. Beshear attributed the "concerning" jump in virus positivity to more asymptomatic cases and cases spreading at Christmas gatherings, though it is still too early to tell if New Year's gatherings will have a similar effect.

Despite the surging positivity rate, the governor said Kentucky's K-12 schools should still be able to resume in-person classes on Monday, as long as they follow the executive order on capacity and accommodations for at-risk staff.

Since March, 280,836 COVID-19 cases and 2,772 virus-related deaths have been reported in Kentucky.

Hospitalizations increased Tuesday, with 1,760 Kentuckians currently hospitalized for COVID-19, 430 people in intensive care units and 215 on ventilators. The state's coronavirus fatality rate, the proportion of people who die out of people who test positive for the virus, sits at 0.98%.

Using the state's contact tracing database, NKY Health reports 2,788 active coronavirus cases in Boone, Campbell, Grant and Kenton counties, and 21,506 people have recovered from the virus as of Tuesday. Since the pandemic began, 167 Northern Kentuckians have died from the virus.

Who's next in line for vaccines?

Kentucky expects to work through the end of January to finish vaccinating long-term care residents and staff as well as frontline health care workers in "Phase 1a." People age 70 and older, first responders and K-12 school personnel will be vaccinated next in "Phase 1b," and that could start by February.

The state announced the remaining vaccine phases Monday: Phase 1c includes anyone age 60 and older, anyone 16 and older with a high-risk medical condition, and all essential workers; Phase 2 includes anyone over age 40; Phase 3 includes anyone older than 16; Phase 4 includes children under 16, provided that the FDA approves a vaccine for children.

"I want to get this vaccine to all of you who want it as quickly as we can. I wish I could tell you it’s going to be tomorrow, but we’re going to make it happen," Beshear said Tuesday.

Kentucky was allocated about 202,000 COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna in December, with another 101,000 doses expected to arrive in the first two weeks of January.

As of Tuesday, Kentucky has administered about 66,500 first vaccine doses. To be fully vaccinated, patients must receive an initial dose followed by a booster dose weeks later.

Public Health Commissioner Dr. Steven Stack said sites will be asked to administer 90% of all vaccines received within seven days of arrival, and to vaccinate "more than half of every interested Kentuckian" by June. To do this, Kentucky will allow vaccination sites to give shots to patients in lower tiers if those sites have no upper-tier vaccinations scheduled.

Health officials are still working on vaccination site plans, locations and an appointment scheduling system, Stack said.

Watch a replay of the briefing in the player below:

Video above: Oregon to require school employee vaccinations

With an alarming rise in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations, more Americans have recently made the decision to get vaccinated than in the last six weeks.

More than 1 million doses of the vaccine were reported administered Thursday, new U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data showed, marking the first time since early July for the single-day change in reported doses. The average pace of those initiating vaccination is more than 70% higher than one month ago.

Oklahoma and Louisiana — two states that have lagged the rest of the nation in vaccinations — are now outpacing the national average, White House COVID-19 Response Team Chief of Staff Asma Mirza said in calls with local faith leaders Thursday.

"We're seeing a new willingness, a new openness to getting vaccinated," she said in a discussion with Louisiana faith leaders.

The boost in vaccinations, however, comes as more health care systems are reporting an increasingly dire situation, with an influx of patients flooding waiting rooms due largely to the spread of the more infectious delta variant.

And because it takes weeks to gain immunity following full vaccination, even those beginning their inoculations need to remain cautious against infection.

Dr. Robert Jansen, chief medical officer at one of Atlanta's largest trauma centers, Grady Health System, said it was seeing a "tsunami of patients coming into the emergency department."

The situation is also critical in Texas, where Gov. Greg Abbott announced the state will deploy additional medical personnel to hospitals across the state.

Lauren Meyers, director of the University of Texas COVID-19 Modeling Consortium, warned that hospitals are at a "breaking point."

"We are sort of in a very dire situation in Austin," Meyers said.

The rate of hospitalizations is still below pandemic highs seen in January, CDC data shows. But at the current pace — an average of more than 11,000 new hospital admissions for COVID-19 over the past week — the U.S. might reach a record high within a month, the CDC said.

Preventative vaccinations are the most effective means to combat COVID-19 infections, and the Food and Drug Administration will likely approve the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine around the end of August, former FDA Commissioner Dr. Mark McClellan said Thursday. Current vaccines have been granted emergency use authorization.

"I think that approval, at least for the Pfizer vaccine, is going to come very soon -- probably by the end of the month or right around there," McClellan told CNN.

Booster shots for those inoculated are expected to be made widely available by Sept. 20, and about 75% of the eligible population will have received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine at current vaccination rates, according to a CNN analysis of CDC data.

Around 51.1% of the total U.S. population is fully vaccinated, according to the CDC.

Vaccine requirements beginning to take shape

With the efficacy of vaccines continuously proven in keeping recipients out of hospitals, more jurisdictions nationwide are taking steps requiring employees to be inoculated, barring medical or religious exemptions.

Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker issued an executive order Thursday that will require approximately 42,000 executive department employees to provide proof of vaccination by mid-October or face possible termination, according to a spokesperson.

In New Orleans, all city employees and public-facing personnel will need to submit proof of vaccination or receive routine Covid-19 testing starting Aug. 30, according to Mayor LaToya Cantrell.

The mayor's office said the additional step was taken "to protect residents, City employees and public-facing contracted personnel from the COVID-19 outbreak, and more recently the Delta variant outbreak in Orleans Parish."

In Oregon, all K-12 teachers, educators, staff and volunteers at schools — both public and private — will need to be fully vaccinated for COVID-19 by Oct. 18 or six weeks after full FDA approval, Gov. Kate Brown announced at a press conference Thursday.

Brown's announcement came as the chief physician executive at St. Charles Hospital, in Bend, Oregon, said hospitals are in crisis.

"Our frontline health care workers that have been caring for patients every day are exhausted," Dr. Jeff Absalon said. "They're burned out. And we're in a pandemic that many of us regard as largely preventable."

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told CNN Thursday that vaccine requirements at schools is a sound strategy to create a safe environment.

"One of the most important ways is to surround the children with people who are vaccinated, if they're eligible to be vaccinated — and that means teachers and personnel in the school," Fauci said.

'This is not an adult disease anymore'

With schools back in session, local officials are faced with deciding whether to mandate masks in classrooms, plus the day-to-day challenges of quarantining students exposed to COVID-19.

Legal battles over mask mandates continued Thursday in Texas, as the state Supreme Court refused Gov. Abbott's request to quickly intervene over some local jurisdictions' decision to require masks in schools.

Dr. Sara Cross, a member of the COVID-19 task force for Tennessee's governor and an infectious disease specialist at the University of Tennessee, said bans on mask mandates would have "catastrophic consequences" for those in classrooms.

"When one child doesn't wear a mask, it doesn't only affect that child. It affects the entire classroom. It affects teachers. We just had a teacher in the Memphis area, a 31-year-old woman, die of Covid in the past few days from acquiring it in the classroom," Cross told CNN on Thursday.

"We can't handle what we're seeing. We are estimating that the number of cases in Tennessee will increase six-fold by the end of September if we don't take measures to mitigate the spread," Cross said.

"This is not an adult disease anymore," Cross said, saying the pediatric hospital in downtown Memphis "currently has at least 9 children in the ICU from COVID-19."

At least 15 states have temporarily or indefinitely required K-12 students to wear masks in schools, according to a CNN analysis, with some provided exceptions: California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Virginia and Washington.

FRANKFORT, Ky. — Gov. Andy Beshear announced that Kentucky childcare workers are now eligible to receive COVID-19 vaccines under Phase 1B.

Beshear said childcare workers can begin signing up for vaccines starting Monday, alongside people age 70 and older, first responders and K-12 school staff. They can sign up anywhere in the commonwealth currently offering vaccinations.

"We are going to specifically ask our local health departments to focus on individuals over 70, vulnerable populations and childcare workers, and that's even if we move into 1C at other places in the future," Beshear said.

Since vaccines arrived in December, nearly 556,000 doses have been administered in Kentucky.

MORE: How to sign up for a COVID-19 vaccine in the Tri-State

The governor also announced Monday that new COVID-19 cases and test positivity have declined for a fifth consecutive week.

"This is the type of decrease we want to see, and we want to keep it going," Beshear said, adding that some capacity restrictions could be lifted if the trend continues.

Beshear reported 723 new cases of COVID-19, the lowest daily case count since Oct. 12, and nine virus-related deaths. The governor suggested that winter weather, which has closed some labs, could have lead to the lower numbers in Monday's report.

Since March, 389,521 Kentuckians have tested positive for COVID-19 and 4,291 have died of the virus. The state's test positivity rate has fallen to 6.57%, the lowest rate since Nov. 5.

Hospitalizations have been on the decline for several weeks. Currently, 969 Kentuckians are hospitalized for COVID-19, with 270 people in intensive care units and 147 on ventilators. As a result, hospital capacity has remained stable statewide, Beshear said. Kentucky's coronavirus fatality rate has risen to 1.10%.

Using the state's contact tracing database, NKY Health reports 2,443 active coronavirus cases in Boone, Campbell, Grant and Kenton counties, and 34,360 people have recovered from the virus as of Monday. Since the pandemic began, 241 Northern Kentuckians have died from the virus.

Watch a replay of the briefing in the player below:

FRANKFORT, Ky. — Starting next week, Kentucky will have 291 COVID-19 vaccination sites open statewide at regional hubs, non-regional sites, health departments, and Kroger and Walmart sites, plus Walgreens and independent pharmacies.

Gov. Andy Beshear on Thursday announced three new vaccination sites that will open in Northern Kentucky next week:

You can find a full list of vaccination sites on this interactive map.

Kentucky is currently in vaccine phase 1B, focusing on people age 70 and older, first responders, K-12 school staff and childcare providers.

Nearly 556,000 vaccine doses have been administered in Kentucky since December.

Some nursing home visitation restrictions relaxed

Kentucky will allow indoor visitation to resume for non-Medicare certified long-term care facilities -- including assisted living, personal care, intermediate care for individuals with intellectual disabilities, and independent living -- for those who have been fully vaccinated.

Visitors must test negative for COVID-19 within 72 hours of the scheduled visit. These visits will be limited to one individual, or two if they are from the same household.

Group activities, communal dining and visitation among long-term care facility residents will also resume for vaccinated individuals in non-certified care. First doses have been offered to all residents and staff at Kentucky’s long-term care facilities, and more than 83,000 have received at least one dose.

“What this means, is once someone is better protected from this disease, we want them to be able to see their loved ones,” Beshear said.

The new visitation protocols start Saturday.

The loosening of visitation restrictions does not apply to Medicare certified long-term care facilities, Beshear said. Kentucky still needs approval and guidance from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) before relaxing restrictions for certified facilities.

COVID-19 cases continue decline

Beshear reported 963 new cases of COVID-19, the lowest daily case count since October. The governor also reported 37 deaths, including a 101-year-old woman from Kenton County.

Since March, 392,729 Kentuckians have tested positive for COVID-19 and 4,373 have died of the virus. The state's test positivity rate rose to 7.07%, and new COVID-19 cases have declined for five straight weeks.

Hospitalizations have been on the decline for several weeks. Currently, 935 Kentuckians are hospitalized for COVID-19, with 260 people in intensive care units and 130 on ventilators. Kentucky's coronavirus fatality rate has risen to 1.10%.

Using the state's contact tracing database, NKY Health reports 2,003 active coronavirus cases in Boone, Campbell, Grant and Kenton counties, and 35,179 people have recovered from the virus as of Thursday. Since the pandemic began, 247 Northern Kentuckians have died from the virus.

As of Monday, there are also four confirmed cases of a more contagious variant of COVID-19 in Kentucky, four in Northern Kentucky and one in Jefferson County. The first two cases, both out of Kenton County, were first reported Jan. 26.

Watch a replay of the briefing in the player below:

FRANKFORT, Ky. — Officials hopes to double the number of Kentuckians vaccinated from COVID-19, and armed with a third type of vaccine plus more doses from the federal government, Gov. Andy Beshear said Kentucky can do it by April.

Gov. Andy Beshear said Kentucky is set to receive 36,500 doses of the newly authorized Johnson & Johnson single-shot vaccine, with shots to be administered in the next week. Doses are bound for local health departments and 130 local independent pharmacies, the governor said.

Kentucky also expects to get about 98,000 more vaccines from the federal government next week, Beshear said Tuesday.

"We believe that with the Johnson & Johnson batch that we're getting now and with increases we expect, we hope to double the number of people vaccinated in this month alone," he said.

Since December, Kentucky has administered more than 845,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses, with more than 100,000 doses admphase 1Cinistered in the last week. Now, residents in phase 1C, like essential workers, people 60 or older and people 16 or older with high risk conditions, are eligible to receive COVID shots.

To find out if you're eligible for a vaccine, schedule appointments and find transportation to your vaccine site, visit vaccine.ky.gov, or call Kentucky's vaccine hotline, (855) 598-2246 from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Capacity jumps to 60% for Ky. businesses Friday

As COVID-19 cases and positivity rate continue to dip in Kentucky, the state will raise capacity limits for certain businesses to 60% effective Friday.

Bars and restaurants, fitness centers, salons and barber shops, houses of worship, retail and several other sectors with be allowed to increase their indoor capacity by 10% if they can do it with six feet of social distancing. Those businesses will still be required to enforce the statewide mask mandate and take other precautions to limit the spread of coronavirus.

As Texas and Mississippi lifted coronavirus restrictions like capacity limits and mask mandates Tuesday, Beshear said Kentucky will gradually "loosen" restrictions as long as local COVID-19 numbers continue to trend down to limit the spread of the virus.

"How many times are some going to make decisions that they know have enormous potential costs of human life?" the governor said.

New COVID-19 cases, positivity trending down

For the last seven weeks, Kentucky has seen new COVID-19 cases decline by 72%, and its positivity rate has fallen from roughly 12% to 4.7%

Kentucky recorded 1,080 new cases, the lowest Tuesday case count in four weeks, as well as 19 new coronavirus deaths, including a 96-year-old woman from Kenton County.

Since March, 406,201 Kentuckians have tested positive for COVID-19 and 4,671 have died of the virus. Kentucky will also conduct an audit on COVID-19 death numbers comparing death certificates to state databases.

Hospitalizations continue to decline. Currently, 684 Kentuckians are hospitalized for COVID-19, with 178 people in intensive care units and 82 on ventilators. Kentucky's coronavirus fatality rate has risen to 1.15%.

Using the state's contact tracing database, NKY Health reports 1,157 active coronavirus cases in Boone, Campbell, Grant and Kenton counties, and 37,416 people have recovered from the virus as of Tuesday. Since the pandemic began, 264 Northern Kentuckians have died from the virus. Track the spread on Kentucky's COVID-19 incidence rate map.

Watch live below:

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Massive spring break crowds, states ending mask mandates, and the loosening of other COVID-19-related restrictions: all are playing a part in the country’s latest climb in COVID-19 cases.

“In fact, we have settled at a very high level of daily deaths, nearly 1,000, and now, we're starting to see cases go up again and starting to see hospital admissions go up again,” said Dr. Vivek Murthy. “This is deeply concerning because every time we've seen it in the past, it's led to another surge."

More than 30 million people in the U.S. have been diagnosed with COVID-19 since the pandemic began last year. After cases declined in February, just in the past two weeks, there was a 20 percent jump in the daily number of COVID-19 cases, an average of 66,000 new cases every day.

“A fourth wave may be imminent,” said George Washington University’s Dr. Amanda Castel, who is an infectious disease epidemiologist.

Dr. Castel said spring break revelers, as well as gatherings and travel from the Easter and Passover holidays, could be tough on the nation’s COVID-19 response in the next few weeks, potentially spreading more mutations of the virus, known as variants.

“It's really important to note that we also do very limited surveillance for the variants in the United States. So, what we're seeing is really just the tip of the iceberg,” Dr. Castel said. “And we know that certain variants, like the U.K. variant, are more easily spread from person to person and may potentially lead to more severe infections.”

Beyond April looms another holiday, Memorial Day, that Dr. Castel says could lead to a potential uptick in COVID-19 cases and a possible fifth wave. She said what happens will depend on how many people get vaccinated by then.

“That's why it's so critical that we need to encourage people to get vaccinated as soon as possible, because we really are in a race, essentially, between the variants and vaccination," Dr. Castel explained.

It’s a race where the finish line hasn’t been crossed yet.