National Institutes of Health director predicts U.S. will see 200,000 new daily cases of COVID-19 in coming weeks

© AP Photo / Rogelio V. Solis
The beds are waiting to be placed in a still-to-be completed section of a COVID-19 mobile field hospital erected in a parking lot at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson, Mississippi on Thursday, August 12, 2021. The unit management will have a mix of inpatient and outpatient services and will be a resource for the entire state, not just the UMMC, and will be comprised of members of the National Disaster Medical System, a team of 36 healthcare professionals federal. AP Photo / Rogelio V. Solis

• The last time the United States experienced this level of new COVID-19 cases was during the winter wave 2020-21.
• There has been a 648% increase in the number of new COVID-19 cases reported in the United States since July 1.
• Several southern states with low immunization rates have experienced flare-ups that strain their hospitals’ resources.
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In an interview with Fox News on Sunday, the director of the National Institutes of Health, Francis Collins, said the United States could soon reach 200,000 new cases of COVID-19 per day, a level of transmission last seen in the winter wave.

“It was January, February, it shouldn’t be August. But here we are with the Delta variant, which is so contagious, and this heartbreaking situation where 90 million people are still unvaccinated, which are sitting ducks. for this virus, and this is the mess we’re in, ”Francis told host Chris Wallace.

The country recorded more than 140,000 new cases of COVID-19 on August 13, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Since July 1, there has been a 648% increase in the number of new cases reported in the United States, in part due to sudden increases in southern states with low vaccination rates such as Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi.

Video: National Institutes of Health director warns of COVID complacency (USA TODAY)

National Institutes of Health director warns of COVID complacency

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Several health systems have been so inundated with severe cases of COVID-19 that they have had to either ration or run out of intensive care beds, ambulances and hospital staff.

A handful of hospitals in Texas and Mississippi have had to set up overflow tents for additional patients due to the recent influx of COVID-19 patients.