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CDC Director Robert Redfield has warned of a “difficult” winter as hospitals fill up with coronavirus patients across the United States, he said in a discussion with the Founding of the American Chamber of Commerce Wednesday.
According to data compiled by the COVID Tracking Project, COVID-19 hospitalizations nearly hit 100,000 on Tuesday, a much higher point than the spring and summer outbreaks of the virus. There were nearly 2,500 coronavirus-related deaths across the United States reported on Tuesday, marking levels not seen since the spring.
And with millions of Americans returning from holiday gatherings last week, the level of illnesses could rise in the coming weeks.
“The months of December, January and February are going to be tough times. I actually think it’s going to be the toughest time in the history of public health in this country,” Redfield said.
As of Tuesday afternoon, there had been 272,000 coronavirus-related deaths in the United States since March. Redfield said he expects the total to reach 450,000 in the next two months, which would put the average number of deaths per day by then at 3,000.
Despite the huge toll the virus has caused mankind, Redfield also acknowledged that there was economic loss associated with the virus.
“One of our biggest victims of the pandemic this year has been the impact on the business community, and on health care in general, the impact on our children’s education,” Redfield said.
But as cases of the virus increase, public health experts say there is light at the end of the tunnel. The federal government expects 40 million vaccines to be prepared for shipment by the end of the month.
Moncef Slaoui, the chief advisor on Operation Warp Speed, said the goal was to have nearly the entire at-risk population in the United States vaccinated by the end of February.
“We will have potentially vaccinated 100 million people, which is really roughly the size of the large at-risk population,” Slaoui said.
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