As the US nears an average of 200,000 Covid-19 cases a day, experts say “behavior and cold weather” are behind the current surge gripping American communities.
“People are going indoors, they’re not minding the three W’s,” Health and Human Services secretary, Alex Azar, told Fox News’s Chris Wallace Sunday. “Our advice is always the same. Wash your hands, watch your distance, wear face coverings.”
Health experts have long warned that the holiday season would bring a spike in coronavirus cases as people increasingly gather indoors. As of Sunday, the US averaged 196,233 new cases over the last week, another record high, according to a CNN analysis of Johns Hopkins data.
More than 14.7 million confirmed cases have been reported in the US since the pandemic began, and more than 282,310 people have died.
And with the recent spike in cases, record hospitalizations have followed. On Sunday, 101,487 patients were in the hospital with the virus, the fifth consecutive day the US surpassed 100,000 hospitalizations.
Only a week after millions traveled for the Thanksgiving holiday, the US has still not seen the full effects of a potential surge of infections fueled by the gatherings. And Azar told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos the holiday season might have more devastation in store.
“We’re worried about people and the behaviors coming up with Christmas,” he said. “We want to make sure everyone’s loved ones are there next Christmas, especially when we have so much hope of vaccines.”Before vaccines can be distributed widely to residents, states must contend with the surge on top of a surge experts say could be coming after the winter holidays.
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said the state just underwent “our highest week to date.” The state reported ten confirmed deaths, a positivity rate of 9.75% and 2,567 new cases as of Sunday evening — the second highest for a Sunday in Kentucky.
While the rate of growth appeared to be slowing, he said, it is still unclear whether data will show “a Thanksgiving surge” later this coming week.
New Jersey and California saw record highs for cases reported in one day. New Jersey reported 6,046 Sunday, topping the previous all-time high recorded Friday, according to Gov. Phil Murphy.
In the more populous California, the new record high was more than 30,000 cases on Sunday. The state also reported an all-time high for hospitalizations with 10,624 patients, according to the California Public Health Department Covid-19 dashboard.
And in Maine, which has the second lowest total of reported cases per capita, the number of infections since October 31 has more than doubled, according to data from the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
