The records keep falling as the number of U.S. coronavirus cases continues to climb.
The United States topped 100,000 cases on a single day Wednesday as the 7-day rolling average also hit a record of 89,859. That’s more than double the 7-day average of a month ago.
Nearly 9.5 million Americans have been infected with the coronavirus since the pandemic began, according to data from Johns Hopkins University, and more than 233,000 have died.
Only three states — Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee — are trending in the right direction as three dozen states are reporting more cases this week than last, CNN reported.
Predictably, the fatality rate is also increasing. More than 1,600 deaths from COVID-19 were reported Wednesday, the most since July 27, The New York Times reported. At least one death from COVID was reported in every state on Wednesday except for Vermont, Hawaii, Alaska, and Delaware, with 466 deaths reported in Georgia alone.
Some state and local officials are beginning to respond with new restrictions on movement and behavior. Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker ordered a stay-at-home advisory every day from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m.; unveiled new restrictions on social gatherings; and ordered indoor facilities, theaters, and other venues to close earlier, CNN said.
The unrelenting pandemic continues apace as CDC Director Robert Redfield, MD, says the country is in dire need of a national strategy to discover people who have COVID-19 but do not show symptoms.
“Now is the time to develop a testing strategy to maximize our ability to identify the silent epidemic of asymptomatic COVID-19 infections,” Redfield tweeted Wednesday. The CDC says up to 40% of COVID patients are asymptomatic.
With Thanksgiving just 3 weeks away and Christmas a month later, the situation may only get worse, Eleanor Murray, an assistant professor of epidemiology at Boston University, told The Washington Post.
“The numbers keep going up, and we’re only getting closer and closer to Thanksgiving and Christmas,” when some families are expected to congregate indoors and risk spreading the virus further, she said. “For so many reasons, the next few weeks are going to be bad for us and good for COVID.”
–Webmd
