The Director of National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Dr. Anthony Fauci hopes that the recent surge in the cases of coronavirus in the United States and the prediction that many more citizens of the US could die in the coming months pushes the public of the US towards following the covid19 safety precautions. More than a dozen states in the US are starting to see an upward trend in the new cases of the virus and things could get a lot worse.
Dr. Fauci said that the total lockdown of the country is not needed but only the implication of simple covid19 safety precautions can prove to be quite effective. These safety precautions are the same that public health officials are telling for months which include not involving yourself in large groups, practicing social distancing measures, wearing a mask, and washing hands frequently.
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31 states in the country have announced an increase in the new cases of the coronavirus on Monday as compared to last week, according to Johns Hopkins University’s Data. Moreover, nine states confirmed a record number of hospitalizations on Sunday, according to Covid Tracking Project. These states included Kansas, Montana, North Dakota, Wisconsin, Arkansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Wyoming.
Emergency Medicine Physician Dr. Leana Wen said that these trends are very alarming and the warning bells should be rung over the country. She further said that people may believe that increasing cases of coronavirus may be due to increased testing, however, the fact is that the positivity rate of the coronavirus tests is more than 10% in not less than 15 states, which means that more testing is needed to be done.
Moreover, many people don’t have any idea where they were infected. Dr. Wen added that 50% or more cases of the coronavirus in many parts around the country cannot be traced to any source of infection, which could mean that the community spread is high. She believes that now as a result the number of hospitalizations will increase.
As of now, around 7.8 million people in the US have been infected and nearly 215,000 have died of the virus, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. Moreover, according to the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, the total number of deaths in the US can almost double by February reaching the figure of 400,000.
Former Director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Dr. Richard Besser believes that the Americans need to take responsibility now in following the covid19 safety precautions and make sure that these predictions don’t convert into reality. He said that if the people follow what the CDC is saying and do what is working for the other countries over the world, that is wear masks, wash hands and follow social distancing, the trajectory can change and the virus can be controlled.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), this upward trend is not only happening in the US as the number of cases all over the world has hit the daily record for the consecutive period of each of the last four days.