Us: Year Of National State Of Emergency
A full year has passed since a national emergency was declared in the United States to tackle the spread of the coronavirus.
Then President Donald Trump made an announcement on March 13, 2020.
The virus, however, has continued to spread, in the early phase mainly in New York City, where medical facilities struggled to treat the growing number of patients.
At present, the US has the highest number of infection cases and fatalities in the world.
Reported cases total over 29.3 million, and more than 530 thousand people have died from the virus.
The daily tally of new cases in March has fallen to around 50,000 from the peak in January.
Director of the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention Rochelle Walensky has repeatedly called on Americans to continue taking precautions.
But states are moving to ease restrictions, reopening businesses, allowing indoor gatherings and lifting mask mandates.
President Joe Biden plans to have as many Americans as possible vaccinated soon in order to put the country on a path to something closer to normal by July.
The US began administering vaccines in December after they were developed and tested with unprecedented speed.
By Friday, more than 130 million doses were made available and about 35 million people, or about 10.5 percent of the total US population, have been vaccinated.
Among the people who are 65 or older -- who tend to develop serious symptoms when infected -- 32.4 percent have been inoculated.
But the ratio of vaccinated people has not yet reached the level required for herd immunity that would continually contain the spread of the virus.