CDC director warns of possible Covid-19 ‘avoidable surge’

Americans must recommit to wearing masks and taking other Covid-19 mitigation measures to avoid a new surge of the virus in the U.S., a top health official said Monday as the White House signaled that shipments of Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine could fall just short of an early target.

Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said cases have begun to rise slightly again, while hospital admissions remain stable and deaths continue to decline. Variants, which are in some cases more contagious or more dangerous, continue to spread, she said. "Taken together, these statistics should serve as a warning sign for the American people,” she said at a press briefing. "We must act now and I am worried that if we don’t take the right actions now, we will have another avoidable surge” as is being seen in Europe.