Over 13 million people in the US have now been infected with the novel Coronavirus which has already claimed more than 264,000 American lives. As per reports, more Americans than ever are in hospital now, and the predicted darkest days ahead are already here.
According to the COVID Tracking Project, on Thanksgiving Day in the US, hospitalization numbers hit a record high of more than 90,000 people, and almost 50 people are now dying every hour in the country, with the Coronavirus not showing any signs of slowing down.
The hospitals in the US are already on the brink and now bracing for a new surge after 6.5 million people flew during the holiday week, with 32 states in the country witnessing a surge in new daily cases, while Pennsylvania, Arkansas, and Massachusetts broke records in daily COVID-19 positive cases.
US Coronavirus Situation
Dr. Emily Landon of the University of Chicago Medical Center said that many people flooded into Coronavirus testing programs to get tested before they traveled for Thanksgiving. "But they do bring the positivity rates down by flooding the testing market with a number of low-risk individuals," she added.
Landon advised that those who came to know about COVID-19 positive individuals from the Thanksgiving gathering should quarantine and also warned that there are many cases right now that "you will probably not hear from a contact tracer".
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the US said that the actual Coronavirus infection case count is likely eight times higher than previously thought. It is all because of under-reporting, false-negative results, and asymptomatic cases who never tested for the viral infection.
On the vaccine front, the CDC committee, aiming at the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, announced that a vote at an emergency meeting on Tuesday, December 1 would recommend who would receive the jab first if one of the candidates gets approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
While people are hoping for vaccine distribution soon, Dr. Leana Wen, an emergency physician and a visiting professor at George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health said that right now Americans need to "hunker down" and prepare for a difficult time ahead.
According to the expert, the vaccine will definitely make a difference but that would happen in spring and summer. According to her since the vaccines are not going to make any dramatic changes right now, "we cannot let our guard down." She added that "If anything, we are rounding the corner into a calamity. We're soon going to exceed well more than 2,000 deaths, maybe 3,000, 4,000 deaths every single day here in the US."
Dr. Jonathan Reiner, a professor of medicine at George Washington University, also predicted on Wednesday, November 25 that the daily death toll would likely double in 10 days and soon notice "close to 4,000 deaths a day."
