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The pandemic is taking root across the Midwest, with temperatures falling and hospitalizations surging. On Thursday, the U.S. reported over 71,600 new coronavirus cases, reaching a record high of daily infections since late July.
“Covid-19 patients are increasing in numbers, really in all parts of the country,” the Deputy Director of CDC for infectious diseases, Jay Butler, informed reporters on a call Wednesday. Notably, high transmission rates are found in the Midwest.
“Unluckily, we are witnessing a worrying drift here in the United States,” Butler said on the conference call. The rise is possibly due to decreased temperatures as the nation enters the winter,” he said.
“Smaller, more intimate meet-ups of friends, family, and neighbours likely driving transmission as well, especially as they move indoors,” Butler added.
According to data compiled by John Hopkins University, which implies a weekly average to account for fluctuations in routine reporting, coronavirus cases grew by five percent or more in the past week in thirty-eight states as of Thursday.
“The outbreak isn’t over,” Dr. Robert Redfield, the CDC U.S. director, said Wednesday. “Here in the United States, we’re closing to a crucial phase.”
Some people also pointed to an increase in Covid testing to describe the rise in cases. While that seems factual, infections have surged much faster than testing.
The U.S. held over 1.1 million tests on Thursday and a record 1.2 million tests on Monday, as reported by Covid Tracking Project, an autonomous volunteer organization launched by The Atlantic’s journalists.
Testing has grown by nearly 11 per cent since October 1. According to data collected by Johns Hopkins researchers, that equals a 46% rise in the average daily frequency of new infections over the same period, from about 42,000 per day to more than 60,000.
Public health and infectious disease specialists, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, the Coronavirus Advisor for the White House, warned that a surge in COVID-19 cases could obscure the nation’s response to the pandemic as it approaches the completion of the year.
“If appropriate measures aren’t implemented to control transmissions at the community level, it all comes to no wonder that healthcare facilities begin to sense a pinch and begin to head towards capacity and beyond capacity,” the University of Toronto’s professor and infectious diseases expert, Dr Isaac Bogoch, told reporters in a recent interview.
Covid-19 hospital admissions have been on the upswing, a distressing sign that public health specialists warn can better indicate a pandemic’s severity because it doesn’t include asymptomatic cases.
According to data provided by the COVID Tracking Project, over 40,000 infected patients are in hospitals in the U.S.
On Thursday, thirteen states reached their record high hospitalizations based on a weekly count. According to analysts of the COVID Tracking Project, many patients are in the Midwest and West, including Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota, Ohio, Nebraska, Utah, Oklahoma, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
With just 11 days until the Nov. 3rd presidential primary, Joe Biden, the former Vice President, said during Thursday’s debate that America was directed for a “dark winter” with no lively prospect for coronavirus vaccine until the middle of next year.
U.S. President Donald J. Trump appeared as optimistic as ever, expressing that the U.S. is “rounding the corner” in the epidemic.
“I don’t consider we’re going to have a dark winter at all,” Trump said. “We’re opening up the country. We’ve learned, studied, and ultimately understand the disease, which we didn’t at the beginning,” Trump said.