- Coronavirus deaths are expected to rise sharply in 9 states soon, according to new estimates from the CDC.
- This comes as, overall, the number of total coronavirus deaths in the US is expected to climb to as many as 175,000 over the next two weeks.
- The CDC is especially worried about a number of southern states, as well as hotspots like Florida and Texas.
According to the latest numbers from Johns Hopkins University, more than 148,000 deaths at the time of this writing have been reported in the US, which has also seen more than 4.3 million confirmed cases since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. Those are big, scary numbers that look frightening on their own, though the impact is somewhat blunted by hopeful news on the horizon — like the fact that an experimental vaccine being developed by Moderna Inc. and the National Institutes of Health is now in Phase 3 testing. More than 30,000 volunteers have stepped up to get the vaccine, one of several in the works around the globe.
However, the near-term prognosis for the US coronavirus situation remains dire. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, for example, is predicting that the number of coronavirus deaths in the US will climb to as many as 175,000 over the next two weeks. Moreover, the CDC is especially worried about how those deaths will impact specific parts of the country — 9 states, specifically.
“National and state-level ensemble forecasts suggest that the number of new deaths over the next 4 weeks will likely exceed the number reported over the last 4 weeks for the US overall, as well as in 25 states and 1 territory,” the CDC wrote in its latest coronavirus report, available here. The states it’s most worried about seeing a spike in deaths include:
- Alabama
- Florida
- Georgia
- Idaho
- Nevada
- Oklahoma
- South Carolina
- Texas
- Utah
This comes at the same time as the CDC has recently moderated its isolation and quarantine guidance, in a way that will hopefully take some of the pressure off of the nation’s strained coronavirus testing apparatus at the same time.
In order to make room for the hardest-hit patients to get access to the tests they need, and because there’s growing evidence that most people suffering from the coronavirus are no longer infectious 10 days after their symptoms first appear, the CDC now discourages people from also getting tested again after their recovery. It’s the kind of test people have been taking at that point to be sure they’re recovered.
“For most persons with COVID-19 illness, isolation and precautions can generally be discontinued 10 days after symptom onset and resolution of fever for at least 24 hours, without the use of fever-reducing medications, and with improvement of other symptoms,” the CDC says as part of its new guidance.
