From CNN
The Covid-19 pandemic is raging across the US — already more devastating than previous surges and showing no signs of slowing down.
On Thanksgiving, the US marked its 24th day in a row with more than 100,000 new cases. Hospitalizations Thursday hit a new high — for the 17th consecutive day — with now more than 90,400 Covid-19 patients nationwide, according to the COVID Tracking Project. More than 1,200 deaths were reported.
The country’s death toll since the pandemic’s start is now more than 263,000. And nearly another 60,000 could lose their lives over the next three weeks, according to an ensemble forecast published by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this week.
“So, we’ll be seeing close to 4,000 deaths a day, which is how you get another 60,000 deaths in only about 20 days,” Dr. Jonathan Reiner, a professor of medicine at George Washington University, said.
And the gatherings that took place over Thanksgiving could further an already ferocious surge, officials warned this week, urging Americans to avoid travel and celebrate with immediate household members only. Many Americans listened, a poll showed this week, but millions of others have boarded planes across the country since last week.
“In a week, more likely two weeks, we will see a surge upon a surge,” Dr. William Schaffner, professor of infectious diseases at Vanderbilt University, said . “We’re in for a tough time.”
In other words, projections for the coming weeks are grim. But that doesn’t mean it’s too late to begin turning things around.
“It we all got together, wore the masks and did the social distancing, we could bend this curve within two or three weeks,” Schaffner said. “We would see actually transmission go down even before we get to the vaccines.”
While a possible vaccine candidate could soon get the green light, widespread effects of a vaccine are still months away. But Americans have valuable tools that can help in the meantime.
They are the public safety measures that have been touted by officials for months — face masks, social distancing, avoiding crowds and practicing good hygiene like regular hand washing.
It’s a simple step, but could make a world of a difference. More than 40,000 lives could be saved over the next two months if 95% of Americans wore face masks, according to projections from the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation.
Amid the crisis, more local and state leaders have pushed out mask orders in the past few weeks hoping to curb Covid-19 spread — including GOP governors who previously resisted similar mandates.