US reports 153,400 new cases of Covid as Dr Fauci urges Americans to be careful: ‘It’s not futile’

The United States on Thursday reported another record peak in Covid-19 cases in one day, as the outbreak worsens and overwhelms some hospitals.

The country reported more than 153,400 new cases on Thursday, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. It is the third consecutive record for single-day cases in the United States and has pushed the seven-day average of new cases to more than 131,400, up more than 32% from a week ago, according to a CNBC analysis of the Hopkins data.

These are not just cases. There are currently more than 67,000 people hospitalized with Covid-19 across the country, more than at any time during the pandemic, according to data from the COVID Tracking Project, run by reporters from The Atlantic. The number of people who die from the disease every day is also increasing.

Dr Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said on Friday that “a number of factors” are behind the outbreak, including people increasingly tired of following. public health measures. He said this was a particular problem as Thanksgiving approaches in about two weeks, when many Americans are expected to travel across the country to see family and friends, potentially bringing the virus with them.

Fauci urged Americans to wear masks, practice social distancing, wash their hands frequently and follow other public health measures.

“If we do things that are simple public health measures, this skyrocket will level off and start to wane,” he told CBS “This Morning”. “You add that with the help of a vaccine, we can turn the tide. This is not in vain.”

Fauci added that “we need to attract more testing into the community” to identify people who have no symptoms but are infected and spreading the virus. Testing has increased dramatically across the country, but as the infection becomes more prevalent, epidemiologists say more testing is needed.

While some, including President Donald Trump, have said increased testing is leading to an increase in cases, the data does not confirm this. The seven-day average for new tests on Thursday was over 1.4 million, up about 8.3% from a week ago, according to a CNBC analysis of data from the COVID Tracking Project. The rise in cases far exceeds that with a week-over-week increase of more than 32%, on an average weekly basis.

And the so-called positivity rate has also increased. Epidemiologists say the percentage of positive tests can be a useful figure in determining whether an epidemic is expanding and whether an area is testing enough. In the United States, the average seven-day positivity rate rose to 9.1% from 7.2% a week ago, according to data from Hopkins.

The rise of the virus is starting to overwhelm hospitals in some areas. Dr Alan Kaplan, CEO of UW Health at the University of Wisconsin, said Thursday that hospitals in his system are overwhelmed in rural and urban communities.

“We are constantly understaffed, either because they have Covid or because they have another disease and we have to rule out Covid before we bring them back to work,” he said on “Squawk on the Street” . “There is no surplus now.”

– Graphics from CNBC Nate rattner.