(Forbes) The United States recorded an all-time high of 103,087 new Covid-19 cases on Wednesday, according to data from various states collected by the Covid Tracking Project, making the day after the election the first time the country has officially recorded more than 100,000 cases.
KEY FACTS Covid-19
Wednesday’s numbers eclipsed the previous high of 97,080 cases set on October 30.
According to the Covid Tracking Project, the 7-day average of new cases has more than doubled from the start of October going from 43,154 cases to 88,971 cases.
More than 1,100 deaths were reported on Wednesday as total hospitalizations continued to climb up to 52,049, with no peak in sight.
According to covidexitstrategy.org, a project run by public health experts in the U.S., 40 states in the U.S. are seeing an uncontrolled spread of Covid-19 while most of the remaining states are trending poorly.
WHAT TO WATCH FOR Covid-19
Despite President Donald Trump’s claims that the U.S. is “rounding the turn” on the pandemic, the assessment from White House coronavirus task force coordinator Deborah Birx is far grimmer. The Washington Post reported that an internal memo from Birx circulated on Monday urged “aggressive action” as the U.S. enters “the most concerning and most deadly phase of this pandemic.” Birx also noted that testing is “flat or declining” in many areas where Covid-19 cases are rising.
CRUCIAL QUOTE
“We’re in for a whole lot of hurt. It’s not a good situation… All the stars are aligned in the wrong place as you go into the fall and winter season, with people congregating at home indoors. You could not possibly be positioned more poorly”, Anthony Fauci, the country’s top infectious-disease official, told the Washington Post on Sunday.
KEY BACKGROUND
Covid-19 cases in the U.S. have been climbing steeply since mid-September, with a subsequent increase in hospitalizations and deaths. President Donald Trump, however, has consistently made the false claim that the U.S. was “rounding the corner” on the pandemic and that the increase in the number of cases was because the U.S. was testing more than anyone else. However, data analyzed by the New York Times shows the U.S. is not meeting required testing targets. The country is presently conducting around 1.24 million tests every day but this number is well below the nationwide target of 2.1 million daily tests, based on a methodology developed by the Harvard Global Health Institute.
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