The United States passed nine million reported coronavirus cases on Friday, according to a tally from Johns Hopkins University, as infections spike days before the nation chooses its next President.
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With the virus spreading most rampantly in the Midwest and the South, hospitals are also filling up again, stretching the health care system just as the nation heads in to flu season.
“We are not ready for this wave,” Ashish Jha, Dean of the Brown University school of public health, warned on ABC’s Good Morning America on Thursday
Curfew imposed
Authorities in El Paso, Texas, imposed a curfew this week to protect “overwhelmed” health care workers and began setting up field hospitals.
But a judge’s attempt to shut down non-essential businesses in the city has been challenged by the Mayor and the State’s attorney general, the Washington Post reported.
Midwestern state Wisconsin has also set up a field hospital in recent weeks, and hospital workers in Missouri were sounding warning bells as cases there rise.
Hospitals in the western state of Utah were preparing to ration care by as early as next week as patients flood their ICUs, according to local media.
The U.S., which has seen a resurgence of its COVID-19 outbreak since mid-October, has now notched up 9,007,298 cases.
Surge warning
On Thursday the country set a record for new daily infections of more than 91,000 in 24 hours.
More than 2,29,000 people have died of the virus in the U.S., since the pandemic began, the Hopkins tally showed as of Friday afternoon, with the daily number of deaths creeping steadily upwards in recent weeks also — though at present it remains below peak levels.
For months, health officials have been warning of a surge in cases as cooler fall weather settles over the U.S., driving more people indoors. As the weather changes, New York and other parts of the northeast, which were the epicenter of the US outbreak in the spring but largely controlled the virus over the summer, were reporting a worrying rise.
