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America’s coronavirus outbreak showed no signs of slowing down during the Thanksgiving holiday, which saw more than 100,000 new cases and hospitalizations continue to break records.
Thursday marked the 24th consecutive day the United States has reported more than 100,000 new cases of Covid-19 and the 17th consecutive day that the number of hospitalized patients with the virus has reached a new record.
There were 110,611 new cases Thursday, according to figures from Johns Hopkins University, and 1,232 new deaths. So far, more than 12.8 million people in the United States have contracted the virus and 263,454 people have died – by far the highest total for any country in the world.
On Thanksgiving Day, 90,481 people were hospitalized, according to the Covid Tracking Project. Meanwhile, medical centers have warned they are approaching capacity.
As millions of Americans ignore government recommendations not to travel for vacation – more than a million people passed through airport checkpoints on Wednesday alone, TSA says The data – Health experts have warned that infections and deaths will continue to skyrocket in the coming weeks.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) predicts that the total number of deaths could reach 321,000 over the next four weeks, according to its latest forecast, updated Wednesday.
“I don’t mean to scare, but … today I can change the course of Covid for our country for the rest of the year,” Brown University emergency doctor Dr Megan Ranney told CNN on Thursday .
“The infections that are maintained today are going to appear in three weeks and will manifest themselves in deaths over Christmas and New Years and will spread to all states.”
Dr William Schaffner, professor of infectious diseases at Vanderbilt University, warned of a “surge wave” in the coming weeks, telling the broadcaster: “We are going through a difficult time.”
Among the most affected states are North and South Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, and New Mexico, which, according to CDC maps, have all seen between 102.8 and 155 cases per 100,000 residents during of the last seven days.
The other states in this bracket are Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Nebraska and Utah.
Dr Anthony Fauci, America’s foremost infectious disease specialist, warned Thanksgiving could mark the start of a gloomy holiday season and he expects Christmas and New Years to continue in the same spirit .
“If the outbreak continues to increase and you have over 100,000 infections per day and 1,300 deaths per day and the tally keeps increasing… I don’t see it being any different over the Christmas holidays and New Years holidays than Thanksgiving, ”he told USA Today.
He said he was probably planning to abandon any Christmas plans, as he did for Thanksgiving, which he spent with his wife away from their three daughters.
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