United States of America recently (last Friday) reported more than 80,000 new Coronavirus infections. It was the highest daily number of infections since the pandemic began. The spike in the daily infection comes amid other uninviting patterns which include rising hospitalizations and daily death tolls across the country. The experts in virology and epidemiology are warning that the worst is yet to come.

Johns Hopkins University stated that the friday’s case count of at least 80,005 surpassed the country’s previous one-day high of 77,362, reported on July 16.

US Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams had cautioned earlier that hospitalizations are starting to go up in 75% of the jurisdictions across the country. In this regard, officials are concerned that in a few weeks, resultant deaths will also start to increase. The good news, Jerome Adams said, is that the country’s Covid-19 mortality rate has decreased by about 85%. The reduction in the mortality rate is attributed to multiple factors, including the use of Remdesivir, steroids and better management of patients.

As per the Covid Tracking Project more than 41,000 Covid-19 patients were in hospitals across the country (last Thursday). Since August 20, this is the highest level of nationwide Coronavirus hospitalizations. The CTP adds that the number of people hospitalized has increased by 33% since the beginning of October. As per a study by John Hopkins University, the seven-day average of daily deaths has climbed to 763, the highest average in a month.

In White House, Coronavirus Task force officials stated that there are “early signs of deterioration in the Sun Belt and continued deterioration in the Midwest and across the Northern States.” They also added that more state leaders have sounded the alarms on increasing infections, hospitalizations and deaths.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, USA’s leading infectious disease expert, said that he is concerned about a massive surge in Covid-19 cases across the country. He further urged people to “double down” on measures to prevent the spread of the virus.

“The upticks on the maps of more than 30 States that are having upticks are not going to spontaneously turn around unless we do something about it,” Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases told CNN. He had previously said that he did not believe that a federal mask mandate would work but on Friday he said that it might be time for it. He added a note of caution that such a rule would be tricky to enforce. Fauci also added that if people are not wearing masks, then maybe authorities should be mandating it.

For weeks, there have been clear signs of a third wave of Covid19 in the U.S. This has been attributed to two main reasons. The weather is getting colder and the virus has migrated from metropolitan regions to more rural settings. But it was far from certain, at the beginning of October, that the resurgence of Covid cases would surpass that of the summer. It has been observed that the third wave will be worse than the second, which was far worse than the first, when cases peaked at 9.7 per 100,000 on April 7.

(Source: CNN News, TIME.com)