US Surpasses 10M Confirmed COVID-19 Cases, Hospitalizations Up in Coronavirus Outbreak

Public health experts are warning Americans already weary of the coronavirus pandemic that the U.S. is about to experience a third wave of surging infections, meaning Sunday’s milestone of surpassing 10 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 is not likely to be the high-water mark.

By Wednesday, the total number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the U.S. topped 10.3 million, representing about one-fifth of the global total, according to the Johns Hopkins University of Medicine coronavirus outbreak tracking project. The total number of Americans who died from the coronavirus reached 240,265 and the total number of Americans in hospitals due to COVID-19 infection hit 61,964, according to The COVID Tracking Project at The Atlantic.

Tuesday marked the seventh day in a row in which more than 100,000 new cases were confirmed in the U.S. and the eighth day in a row that more than 50,000 U.S. residents were admitted to hospitals for coronavirus treatment. All but one of those days saw increases of more than 1,000 new hospitalizations a day. The one exception saw 959 more hospital admissions.

Globally, the COVID-19 death toll as of Wednesday was 1,277,717, meaning fatalities in the U.S. comprise slightly less than 20% of the world’s total. More Americans have reportedly died from the coronavirus than residents of any other country. The next highest death count comes from Brazil, where 162,802 people were reported dead due to the virus. India, Mexico and the United Kingdom round out the top five nations with the highest COVID-19 death rate.

More than 1,000 Americans died of coronavirus daily in six of the last eight days.

While some medical experts, including Harvard University infectious-disease researcher William Hanage, have said there is reason to be hopeful that doctors have learned enough about the virus to be better able to treat patients successfully now, the risk remains high.

Public health officials have been warning for weeks that a third wave of infection is coming, if not already here, and that it will be more widespread than previous surges. In the months after the coronavirus outbreak hit the U.S. in March, the highest number of infections happened in New York and the surrounding region. Later, as it subsided in the Northeast, significant increases in infection hit Florida, Texas and California.

Doctors and infectious disease specialists say the spread could be less localized.

“The virus is spreading in a largely uncontrolled fashion across the vast majority of the country,” the Associated Press quoted Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious-disease expert at Vanderbilt University, as saying Wednesday morning.

The grim milestones and surging cases come in the midst of national tumult and uncertain federal leadership. Democratic presidential candidate Joseph R. Biden was unofficially declared the winner of the general election on Saturday when vote totals in the crucial state of Pennsylvania reached a level that solidified Biden’s overall lead.

In the days since, Biden has been mobilizing experts and on Monday announced the creation of a coronavirus task force to help the incoming administration tackle the pandemic. But President Donald J. Trump has so far refused to concede the race and his campaign is pursing legal challenges to the count in several states – including Pennsylvania. That stance prevents Biden’s transition team from beginning to work with the federal government.

Some promising news emerged Monday when Pfizer announced a coronavirus vaccine its teams are working to develop has shown itself to be 90% effective. The results were announced at the end of Pfizer’s third stage of testing on the vaccine, which began in July with 43,000 participants.

The Pfizer vaccine, if approved, would be the first of its kind in that it uses a new technology. Rather than using virus cells to induce a reaction in the immune system to defend against infection, Pfizer’s vaccine targets the “spike protein” that is characteristic to the outer layer of the coronavirus cells, which enable them to invade healthy human cells. Degrading the spikes would, in theory, render them ineffective.

In the roughly nine months since the coronavirus pandemic took root on U.S. soil it has wreaked havoc on the economy, plunged the population into an even deeper divide than existed politically beforehand, and affected nearly every American’s life in one way or another.

Businesses were closed during state lockdowns in the early months in an uneven fashion, at best, as states were left to plot their own individual courses of action. In most places, the severe lockdowns have been lifted, but some businesses never recovered. In other areas, the economic depression caused closures even when regulations did not.

The travel and tourism industry has been hit hard and travelers have struggled to recoup payments made on vacations that had to be canceled. Several have filed class action lawsuits in courts across the U.S. to try to get their airline tickets refunded.

Residents in nursing homes emerged as the most vulnerable to the spread of the virus and dozens of inpatient health care and nursing facilities were shown to have been ill-equipped to handle the pandemic. Numerous families have filed lawsuits against nursing homes over claims they failed to be prepared to handle the spread of an infectious disease, which resulted in many preventable deaths, they say.

And the risks posed by the ongoing pandemic prompted several states to alter their voting plans and voting laws to allow for greater access to mail-in ballots for primary elections and the general election. That phenomenon itself triggered dozens of lawsuits to be filed as the Trump campaign and Republican groups objected in advance of the election, during it and after it. The widespread use of mail-in ballots, and the delay in counting them – as required in some states, including Pennsylvania – meant the winner of the presidential election was not declared on Election Day, as is customary.

As of Wednesday, votes were still being counted in some states and Trump has not only refused to concede the election, but is still challenging the count in Arizona, Pennsylvania,  and Michigan, among others.

Have you been infected with COVID-19? Have you been directly impacted by the coronavirus outbreak? Tell us about it in the comment section below.

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