The U.S. has broken its own record for daily cases of covid-19, with 116,225 new cases on Thursday, according to the Covid Tracking Project, up from the previous record of 103,087 new cases on Wednesday. The country also identified 1,124 new deaths from coronavirus on Thursday, bringing the total to 234,937 deaths based on figures maintained by Johns Hopkins University. And public health experts warn it’s going to get much worse in the coming days and weeks.
The Upper Midwest states are being hit the hardest by covid-19 right now, relative to population. North Dakota recorded over 2,000 cases per million people on Thursday, the highest number ever for any state. The state has been reluctant to adopt mask ordinances that would slow the spread of the disease, while even members of the White House Coronavirus Task Force have noted that mask use is low and likely contributing to the problem.
Other states in the Midwest are struggling with high test positivity rates, with Minnesota setting a new state record of 9.2%, a largely uncontrolled pandemic. Health workers in states like Minnesota are also getting sick at higher rates, according to a new report from NBC-TV affiliate KTTC in Rochester, the home of the Mayo Clinic.
Hospitalisations for covid-19 are rising in the U.S. and many regions are seeing their health care resources stretched thin. And even people outside of public health are taking notice. CNBC, a cable news outlet that skews heavily right wing, has shifted dramatically this morning with experts speaking about the drag that the worsening pandemic might have on the economy and the financial markets. CNBC had one expert on who warned that hospitals could face unprecedented pressure from covid-19 in early 2021.
“The U.S. is maybe six weeks behind France where cases were rising steadily and then suddenly they were rising exponentially,” says @IanShepherdson. “By the start of the new year, you could be looking at a hospital picture the likes of which we never saw.” pic.twitter.com/wBCH7yde9K
— Squawk Box (@SquawkCNBC) November 6, 2020
Former FDA commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb, a regular on CNBC, advised the Trump regime to work harder on combatting the pandemic between now and January, something that seems extremely unlikely.
While Americans are glued to their TVs and social media feeds, watching presidential election returns coming in from places like Pennsylvania, Nevada, and Georgia on Friday morning, the country still has a pandemic that’s sickening over 100,000 people per day. The mortality rate for the disease has decreased since the spring, but as we now know, even if you survive the coronavirus, there are potentially long term health consequences.
This has been your brief covid-19 update and you’re free to go back to watching the election returns.