White House coronavirus task force said that mitigation efforts and social distancing efforts made by Americans are rising the hope that the US can resist the projected death tolls. On March 31, task force projected that even if proper guidelines are followed, a pandemic could cause between 100,000 and 240,000 American lives. The estimate was made based on pieces of evidence from European countries like Spain and Italy.
Dr Deborah Birx said that by looking at Spain and Italy most affected countries after the US, they are doing much better in many cases than other countries. "We believe that our healthcare delivery system in the United States is quite extraordinary," she added.
Institute for Health Metrics and University of Washington School of Medicine previously estimated that over 60,000 people could be killed in the next four months in the US due to the virus. Looking at the efforts made by citizens, mew model estimated last Thursday states that number now can be fewer than 33,000.
Americans are adapting the new behavioural change amazingly. Birx said that those who have been in the science field for so long can understand that this behaviour change is very remarkable. America is now in a time period when citizens are executing their full mitigation efforts and this will be reflected in coming weeks with decreasing mortality. This is what changing the rate of new cases and this will lower the transmission of virus in coming future, he added.
Moving too soon can result in second wave
Dr Birx urged people to maintain the behaviour with the same commitment during this vulnerable time and that is how according to her the Americans are going to get through this. Director of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Robert Redfield said, "This is a consequence of the commitment of the American people ... What's been remarkable to watch here is how the American public has changed their behavior when it protects the vulnerable."
The task force also warned citizens that government guidelines should still be followed otherwise moving too soon can result in "second wave" of infections. The United States reported its deadliest day on April 7 with almost 2,000 deaths in 24 hours. The nation reported its maximum number of patients on April 4 with 34,196 cases. With New York still being the most affected region, there have 435,160 cases confirmed with 22,891 deaths due to coronavirus in the United States so far.
