TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) — In a new report, the White House Coronavirus Task Force says it’s clear that only “aggressive mitigation” can “match a more aggressive virus.”
The White House Coronavirus Task Force report for January 10 says Americans must do more and take more precautions “moving beyond what worked in the summer to more layered mitigation.”
According to the report, Florida is in full COVID-19 resurgence, which will drive significant fatalities for many weeks and stress the staffing of the hospital system.
Georgia is in full pandemic resurgence and will experience continued increases in new COVID admissions and fatalities, the White House Coronavirus Task Force said.
Data that had been muddy over the holidays “has stabilized and reveals a clear continuation of the pre-holiday high rate of spread as measured by rising test positivity, increased cases, increased hospitalization rates, and rising fatalities.”
The report states that nearly all metro areas over 500,000 persons are in full resurgence and significant, continued deterioration from California across the Sunbelt and up into the Southeast, Mid-Atlantic, and Northeast suggests increasing and aggressive community spread.
The task force says that type of spread requires aggressive and increased mitigation, testing, use of monoclonal antibodies, and vaccination.
“This fall/winter surge has been at nearly twice the rate of rise of cases as the spring and summer surges,” the report read. “Without uniform implementation of effective face masking (two or three-ply and well-fitting) and strict physical distancing, epidemics could quickly worsen as more transmissible variants spread and become predominant.”
All counties in Florida have moderate or high levels of community transmission (yellow, orange, or red zones), with 96 percent having high levels of community transmission (red zone).
