The United States has had a record number of daily COVID-19 deaths since May on the eve of Thanksgiving

• As coronavirus cases, deaths and hospitalizations in the United States set new records almost every day, experts nervously monitor the behavior of Americans during Thanksgiving.
• Public health experts have urged people not to travel this year, and the CDC recommends not to mix households at Thanksgiving gatherings.
• But a record number of travelers have crossed the country ahead of the holidays, and one in three people interviewed by Insider said they’re not giving up on their traditional dinner plans.
• Without proper precautions, however, the United States could be hit by a double push and a “humanitarian crisis,” an expert told ABC News.
• Visit the Business Insider homepage for more stories.

Thanksgiving couldn’t be better designed to be a coronavirus spreading event.

Already, COVID-19 cases, deaths and hospitalizations are skyrocketing in the United States, approaching a new high. Thanksgiving is likely to accelerate that rise, allowing the virus to enter millions of densely populated and poorly ventilated homes.

As of Thursday, at least 12.8 million Americans have tested positive for the coronavirus, according to Johns Hopkins University. The COVID Tracker Project reported that nearly 90,000 people in the United States were hospitalized with COVID-19 on Wednesday, with hospitalizations breaking daily national records over the past 16 days.

More than 262,400 Americans have died from COVID-19, and more than 2,300 of them died on Wednesday alone. This week marks the first time the United States has surpassed 2,000 daily deaths since early May, according to the New York Times.

It has been more than 10 months since the first case of coronavirus was detected in the United States, but these grim steps are becoming more frequent.

Yet President Donald Trump, who tested positive in October, has repeatedly downplayed the threat of the virus, insisting the country is “getting round the corner” and COVID-19 “will simply go away.” The White House is even planning indoor parties for Christmas and Hanukkah, officials told Axios.

The opportunity to ‘transfer the disease’ across the United States

Mondometers

Health experts have urged Americans to reinvent Thanksgiving and the 2020 holiday season and avoid situations where they can contract or transmit the virus. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has asked people to avoid mixing households and holding small, brief, masked gatherings outdoors, if possible.

Travel has been a major concern, with the CDC classifying medium-sized events with people coming from outside the region as “high risk.”

“Right now, as we see an exponential growth in cases and the possibility of transferring disease or infection from one part of the country to another leads us to recommend avoiding travel at this time.” Dr Henry Walke, the COVID-19 responsible for incidents at the CDC, told reporters on November 19.

One in 3 Americans don’t change their plans

Xinhua / Wei Lan via Getty Images

Dr Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious disease specialist, made a “final pre-holiday plea” when speaking to ABC News chief anchor George Stephanopoulos on Wednesday.

“We all know how difficult it is because it is such a beautiful traditional holiday. But by making this sacrifice, you are going to prevent people from getting infected,” said Fauci, whose own daughters refused to. returning home for Thanksgiving in an attempt to protect their 79-year-old father.

He added: “If we can stay a little longer and keep doing the simple mitigating things we talk about all the time – masks, distance, crowd avoidance, especially indoors. we’re doing these things, we’re going to get there. “

Yet not everyone heeded this advice. An insider poll of 1,110 people in the United States found that nearly one in three respondents – or 37% – do not do things differently this year. And 57% of respondents said they plan to gather different households around their dining table in the absence of masks and open windows.

Airports are also seeing an increase in the number of travelers. The Transportation Safety Administration reported screening more than a million passengers last Friday, and then again Sunday and Wednesday. These are the most important days for air travel since March 16, according to agency newspapers.

Daily COVID-19 Deaths Could Double in Next 10 Days

Meanwhile, the CDC on Wednesday released a forecast projecting an increase in coronavirus deaths over the next four weeks, with between 10,600 and 21,400 new deaths likely to be reported the week of December 19.

“The nationwide predicts that a total of 294,000 to 321,000 deaths from COVID-19 will be reported by that date,” the CDC said.

Mondometers

Dr Jonathan Reiner, professor of medicine at George Washington University, predicted to CNN that the deaths recorded daily will not simply surge but will double in the next 10 days. There is a delay of about two weeks between those infected and their arrival at the hospital, with symptoms appearing between five and seven days.

“We will see nearly 4,000 deaths per day,” he said Thursday.

And as it gets colder and people move indoors, experts are concerned about a “humanitarian crisis,” Dr John Brownstein of Boston Children’s Hospital told ABC News.

“If we add in the trips and large indoor gatherings that we know are the engines of the transmission, we would expect to see a massive increase on top of an already dire situation,” he said.

Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, echoed the sentiment.

“I’m concerned that the Thanksgiving Day surge will then add to what will become the Christmas wave, which will make it look like this one wasn’t that bad,” he told CNN , adding: “We have to understand that we” you are in a very dangerous place. People have to stop exchanging air. It’s as simple as that. “

Macroeconomics of the Pantheon

Already, medical resources across the country are depleted, with nurses and doctors working around the clock and risking exposure to the coronavirus themselves.

Dr Joseph Varon, chief of staff at United Memorial Medical Center in Houston, Texas, told CNN the pandemic has forced him to work 251 days in a row. Her hospital is at full capacity and is scrambling to open two new wings for an influx of patients after Thanksgiving.

Varon described the treatment of people in the midst of the pandemic as “a never-ending story” and warned of a rapidly deteriorating situation across the country without proper precautions.

“My concern for the next six to twelve weeks is that if we don’t do it right, America is going through the darkest days in modern American medical history,” he said.

Jim Edwards contributed to this report.