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The United States continued to report more than 100,000 new cases of coronavirus per day over the holiday weekend, as experts warned that widespread Thanksgiving travel could fuel an outbreak in the coming weeks.
The number of new cases of Covid-19 reported in the United States exceeded 200,000 for the first time on Friday, according to Johns Hopkins University. Since January, when the first infections were reported in the United States, the total number of cases has exceeded 13 million. Over 265,000 people have died.
There was good news on Monday, as Moderna said he would seek permission from the United States to use his coronavirus vaccine. The company announced the final results of its trial, which it says confirms 94% effectiveness.
Moderna’s data will be weighed by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on December 17. The company said it expected to have doses for 10 million people ready for the United States by the end of December. Pfizer and BioNTech submitted an emergency use request on November 20.
News of Moderna’s progress came as the number of hospitalizations in the United States hit an all-time high.
According to the Covid Tracking Project, 93,238 patients were in hospital on Sunday, a steady increase from 47,531 in early November, putting more strain on workers and resources as winter approaches.
Despite dire warnings from federal authorities, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), millions of Americans traveled over the weekend, as Thanksgiving drew to a close.
Dr Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said this could cause a spike in cases and warned that the level of infection in the United States will not “come back suddenly”.
“What we unfortunately expect over the next two weeks in December is that we could see a surge superimposed on the wave we’re already in,” Fauci told NBC on Sunday.
Fauci said it was “not too late” for people returning home after Thanksgiving to help fight the virus by wearing masks, staying away from others and avoiding large groups.
Between 800,000 and over one million travelers have passed through U.S. airport checkpoints every day over the past week, according to statistics from the Transportation Security Administration, as airports recorded their highest number of trips since the start of the pandemic.
Wednesday was the busiest flight day since mid-March, with 1,070,967 passengers passing airport security, the Washington Post reported. At the start of the pandemic, daily totals fell below 100,000 on some days.
The impact of mass travel and Thanksgiving gatherings could mean a flood of new cases just before Christmas.
“When you look at the people who are hospitalized today, they were infected two weeks ago, maybe more,” Dr. Jonathan Reiner, professor of medicine at George Washington University, told CNN. “And then it usually takes another week for people to succumb to the disease.”
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