US Hospitals Fill 100,000 Covid-19 Cases Amid Fear of Pre-Christmas Flare | Coronavirus



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Nearly 100,000 people are hospitalized in the United States with coronavirus, a record, as states and cities scramble to implement tough new social measures after Thanksgiving and as the Christmas holidays approach.

According to Axios, Food and Drug Administration commissioner Stephen Hahn was summoned to the White House on Tuesday to explain why no vaccine has yet been approved.

The White House Coronavirus Task Force was digesting the resignation of Scott Atlas, a controversial Stanford neuroradiologist who won Trump’s ear when he had no expertise in infectious disease.

Senior public health expert Dr Anthony Fauci on the task force said the United States was “not in the right place” after many ignored advice not to travel on Thanksgiving , and warned that a further increase in cases was likely in two to three weeks. .

The number of people treated in hospital for Covid-19 stood at 96,039 on Monday, nearly double the total in early November, according to the Covid Tracking Project. There have been 13.5 million cases of the coronavirus in the United States and 268,045 people have died.

In an interview with Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg on Monday, Fauci said the United States was on the verge of “a surge, superimposed on a surge.”

“What we did with Thanksgiving, Mark, we’re not going to see the repercussions of that for two to three weeks now,” Fauci said. “So because of the trips, the people getting together, etc., you don’t see the difference in two, three, five days. You see the difference in two to three weeks.

“Which would be right by the time people travel for Christmas.” So, all things considered, we are in the wrong place.

Los Angeles County, which has a population of 10 million, imposed a stay-at-home order on Monday, while Santa Clara, also in California, announced a quarantine for anyone who has traveled more than 150 miles. from the city.

Travelers wearing face masks at Miami airport last week.
Travelers wearing face masks at Miami airport last week. Photograph: David Santiago / Miami Herald / Getty Images

In Hawaii, the Hawaii County mayor said transpacific travelers arriving without a negative Covid-19 test must be quarantined for 14 days, and even those who tested negative could be randomly selected for another test at the arrival.

New Jersey suspends all youth sports. California, the most populous state, became the first to register more than 100,000 cases in one week on Sunday, The New York Times reported. This prompted tough new measures in parts of the state, as Gov. Gavin Newsom warned hospitals could be nearly full by Christmas.

“If these trends continue, California will need to take drastic action,” Newsom said in a briefing.

On Monday, Moderna submitted a vaccine against the coronavirus, which it says is 94% effective, to the FDA for emergency use approval. With a Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine, the FDA now has two vaccines it could approve in December.

Pfizer and BioNTech submitted their vaccine for approval on November 20. The FDA is due to hold a public meeting to discuss vaccine approval on December 10.

On Tuesday morning, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany told Fox News the FDA was working “around the clock,” but said Trump “would never apologize for setting fire to these agencies ”.

In his Facebook interview, Fauci called on people to “be part of the solution” by getting vaccinated when possible.

“Say, ‘I will not be one of those stepping stones for the virus to reach someone else. I’m going to be a dead end in the face of the virus, ”Fauci said, while adding that vaccines would not be available to the general public until April or May.

“By the time we get to April, they’ll probably have taken care of the high priority and then the general population of normal, healthy young men or women, 30, 40, with no underlying health problem, can enter. a CVS or a Walgreens and get vaccinated.

“I would think of April and May, the overwhelming majority of those who wish can get vaccinated. The challenge will be to convince people to get vaccinated. “

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