The hardest hit regions of the West and Midwest encompass a number of battlefield states. (File)
Washington:
The White House Coronavirus Task Force has warned that much of the country is grappling with a “relentless” increase in COVID-19 cases, calling for tough countermeasures, while at least nine States on Thursday reported a record daily increase in new infections.
The worst-hit regions of the West and Midwest encompass a number of battlefield states expected to play a central role in Tuesday’s US presidential race between incumbent Republican Donald Trump and his Democratic challenger , Joe Biden.
“We are on a very difficult trajectory. We are going in the wrong direction,” said Dr Anthony Fauci, senior member of the task force and director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, said coronavirus cases were on the rise in 47 states and patients were overwhelming hospitals across the country.
“If things don’t change, if they continue on the path that we are following, there will be a lot of pain in this country when it comes to the additional cases, hospitalizations and deaths,” Fauci said in an interview with CNBC Wednesday night. .
The White House Coronavirus Task Force has warned states in the central and western parts of the country that aggressive measures will be needed to curb the spread of the virus, according to weekly state reports seen by CNN.
“We continue to see a large, relentless community spreading throughout the Midwest, Upper Midwest and West. This will require aggressive mitigation measures to control both silent and asymptomatic spread and symptomatic spread,” said a state report.
The worrying assessment was echoed Thursday by Dr Ashish Jha, Dean of Public Health at Brown University, who told Reuters: “Things are very, very bad in the United States right now.”
“We have some of the biggest rashes we’ve had in the entire pandemic,” he said, adding that the first waves of infections last spring were more localized. “And nine, ten months after the start of this pandemic, we are still not quite prepared.”
At least nine states – Indiana, Ohio, Maine, Minnesota, Illinois, North Dakota, North Carolina, Michigan and Oregon – reported a record increase in COVID-19 cases on Thursday, according to a Reuters tally.
Indiana has also reported a record number of hospitalizations, which are skyrocketing across the country, a measure independent of the amount of tests performed.
As of Thursday, there were 45,457 COVID-19 patients in U.S. hospitals, the highest number since August 14. Nearly 228,000 people have died from the respiratory virus in the United States since the start of the epidemic – the highest national toll in the world – and 8.6 million American infections have been documented to date.
‘RAGING’ VIRUS
Ohio Governor Mike DeWine announced the creation of “COVID Defense Teams” of community leaders to focus on measures to slow the spread.
“The virus is raging across the state, and there is no place to hide,” DeWine said at a press conference as he urged residents to become more diligent in wearing masks, social distancing and hand washing.
Health experts believe virus is on the rise due to increased private social gatherings, colder temperatures pushing people indoors, and Americans letting their guard down due to fatigue with COVID restrictions- 19.
Russell Vinik, chief medical officer for the University of Utah Health Plans, said the virus was spreading in his state mainly through small social gatherings.
As cases skyrocket in Utah, Vinik said there is an urgent need for specialist medical professionals to manage the outbreak.
“We have the right PPE (personal protective equipment), our big problem is humans, the people you need,” he said in an interview. “These are not hospital beds. They are trained and specialized providers to care for these patients.”
As the pandemic threatens to spread into winter, with a vaccine in a few more months, Vinik said hospitals are likely to become more strained.
Fauci said the first doses of a coronavirus vaccine could become available to some high-risk Americans in late December or early January, if all goes well.
Brown’s dean of public health said doctors have improved in treating COVID-19, which he says helps explain why death rates have improved somewhat, “but we’re still starting to see many hospitals start to fill up. “
Trump on the election campaign has repeatedly played down the virus, claiming for weeks the country is “getting round the corner” even as new cases and hospitalizations skyrocket.
At a rally in Arizona on Thursday, the president again opposed stronger measures against the resurgence of the virus.
Biden and his Democratic colleagues in Congress have excoriated Trump for his handling of the health crisis.
(Except for the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is posted from a syndicated feed.)
