The total US coronavirus cases surpassed 2 million on Wednesday.The Johns Hopkins virus dashboard counted more than 27,000 new cases Wednesday, a day that saw almost 1,000 U.S. deaths. More than 113,000 Americans have died since the virus emerged here a few months ago.As of Thursday, the United States had least 2,001,609 cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, with patients testing positive in all 50 states.
As the nation slowly reopens after months of lockdown, the pandemic that paralyzed the global economy is still very much among us. Despite a decline in U.S. deaths for six weeks in a row, Dr. Ashish Jha, director of the Harvard Global Health Institute, said the USA must be prepared for 100,000 victims in the next few months.
“The pandemic is still here. Between 800 and 1,000 people are dying a day,” Jha tweeted. “We can’t become immune to this. We can’t.”
While good news on the numbers emanates from New York and Chicago, states such as Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida and South Carolina are seeing surges. A record 1,698 new cases were announced Thursday by the Florida Department of Health.
It’s not just the USA. Globally, more than 7.4 million cases have been reported, and there have been more than 418,000 deaths. India reported a spike: nearly 10,000 new cases Thursday. South Korea, the world’s success story for its triumphant effort to flatten the curves for new cases and deaths, is seeing a worrisome infection boom.
The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation said Thursday that it anticipates global deaths “into the millions” by October.
U.S. health experts understand the urgency in reopening the U.S. economy. About 1.5 million Americans filed first-time applications for unemployment insurance last week, pushing the tally over the past 12 weeks to a record-smashing 43 million people.
But reopening comes at a cost.America is seeing more cases related to Memorial Day and summer vacation travel, gatherings for a wide variety of events ranging from the historic protests sweeping the nation to pool parties.
After months of lockdowns, then a slow reopening amid the mass demonstrations, it’s not clear whether Americans are prepared to continue making social distancing sacrifices that could be needed to stem the outbreak.
The next two weeks will provide an indication of whether a full-scale second wave of infections – which would mean an exponential growth in cases – is occurring or whether it’s a “flare-up” that shows itself as a short-term spike. Either way, the solutions are hand-washing, social distancing and related measures that public health officials have preached for months.