- Nearly 200,000 Americans have died from the coronavirus since the pandemic began.
- More than two dozen states are now seeing an increase in new coronavirus infections.
- The U.S. is currently seeing approximately 36,000-40,000 new infections a day.
In a scenario we’re starting to see play out time and time again, a number of states that previously experienced a drop in new coronavirus cases are now starting to see an uptick in new infections. Hardly a surprise, health professionals have said that this is likely due to colder weather, businesses reopening across the country, and the propensity for people in some areas to ignore coronavirus safety measures like social distancing and mask-wearing.
According to CNN, states currently seeing a rise in new coronavirus cases include Wisconsin, Idaho, South Carolina, Iowa, and Kansas.
According to The New York Times, which has been accurately tracking COVID-19 data for months now, other states experiencing a surge in new cases include North Dakota, South Dakota, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Missouri.
A list of states where the number of new cases is on the decline includes Illinois, Minnesota, Florida, Indiana, Louisiana, and North Carolina.
The Times further adds that the cumulative number of coronavirus cases in the U.S. currently stands at 6.8 million. Yesterday, the number of new coronavirus cases was around 36,000. And while this is markedly lower from what we saw back in July — when the daily number of new cases reached 70,000 — it’s still an “unacceptable level’ according to Dr. Anthony Fauci.
Recall, Fauci back in August said it was imperative for the U.S. to get the number of daily new cases below 10,000 before fall. “People were talking in the spring about the big surge we had that everyone was hoping would go down to baseline, and they were talking about the second wave in the fall,” Fauci explained back in early August.
“You look at our numbers now,” Fauci said, “we’re right in the middle of the first wave here. We’re having a surging of cases. The last ones with 50-60,000 per day with 1,000 deaths per day. We’ve got to get those numbers down. And if we don’t get them down, then we’re going to have a really bad situation in the fall. Because as you get indoors and you get the complication of influenza, that’s something we’re going to have to deal with.”
The number of COVID-19 related deaths, meanwhile, is approximately 199,446. It’s worth noting that the number of coronavirus deaths has been hovering under 200,000 for quite a while and some health experts, as a result, are encouraged that the number of deaths isn’t rising as rapidly as the number of new infections.
As for a vaccine, the world’s largest vaccine maker last week recently said it may take as long as four years to vaccinate the entire world population. And that, of course, assumes that an effective vaccine even comes to light sometime later this year. In the meantime, the CDC director recently said that wearing a mask can be just as effective as a vaccine when it comes to preventing the coronavirus from spreading.
