US coronavirus cases continue to rise on Monday with record hospitalizations reported from many states. The country passed the grim landmark of 9 million cases, which is the highest of any country, and according to forecasts if the country doesn’t take safety precautions the country can reach the death figure of 400,000 by February.
The government of the US has promised that they will deliver a vaccine by the year’s end and it will be their response to the coronavirus pandemic. The states have filed the plans they made regarding the distribution of the coronavirus vaccine with the US centers for disease control and prevention (CDC) however they have not received any payment yet from the congress for building the infrastructure needed to implement those plans. The states have no hope of receiving any money before the election on the 3rd of November and things may get even worse after the elections.
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Around 87,000 new US coronavirus cases were reported on 31st October, Saturday, with nearly 909 deaths. In the month of October, 31 states across the US set records for new cases, 14 states set records for an increase in the number of deaths, and 21 states set records for increased coronavirus hospitalizations.
President Donald Trump, who is looking to get re-elected, has so far downplayed the virus and has made accusations towards the democratic party that they are trying to overblow the pandemic, the same pandemic that had already taken the lives of nearly 230,000 people in the country which is the most of any country. Joe Biden who stands opposed to the president on election day and his democratic party has laid into Trump calling him a poor leader and the president who failed to control the coronavirus in the US, which is the leading nation in terms of the number of cases.
Public health officials around the US believe that the months of November, December, and January should be when the federal government and the states start to work together on their plan to get the transport, equipment, and storage ready for distributing the vaccines and also set a system in place that is capable of tracking the people who are vaccinated and when were they vaccinated.
University of Minnesota’s Director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and policy Michael Osterholm said that the US coronavirus cases are going to increase rapidly no matter what is done as it is like a runaway freight train which is very hard to stop. He believes that the elections will just make matters more complicated because people are very angry right now.
Health experts including Osterholm are worried that if a new administration gets elected the number of new US coronavirus cases can still be limited. Osterholm said that even if the new administration gets elected and wants to start working on the increasing number of cases, they can’t, because for the next three months until the 20th of January they will have no authority. Osterholm further believes that the period from this election to the start of the new tenure of the elected government will be the darkest days and will be like the black hole.