Wave of COVID cases breaks records

A record-breaking wave of coronavirus cases continued across the United States on Sunday, and unsettled public health officials and politicians warned of a holiday season filled with increased hospitalizations and deaths.

A surge of cases revealed a snowball effect: It took only 10 days for the country to move from 9 million cases to what is expected to be its 10th million case today. By comparison, it took more than three months for the country to go from no cases to 1 million in late April.

Public health officials reacted with dire warnings.

“Down this current path lies [ a] continued rapid rise in cases,” Tom Inglesby, director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, wrote in an extended thread on Twitter.

“More people on ventilators. Higher numbers of people dying. More survivors with long term consequences. Hospitals under pressure until they can’t provide care for everyone anymore.”

Good news was hard to find. The country’s seven-day new case average was more than 100,000 for the first time. In five of the past seven days, more than 1,000 deaths were recorded.

On Sunday, more than 107,607 cases were reported.

More than half of states reported a new high for their seven-day average of cases, including Maryland, for the first time since early May.

The virus has been spreading fastest in the Great Lakes and Mountain West states, with North Dakota, South

Dakota and Wisconsin leading the way. For nearly a month, Ohio has each day set a new high in its seven-day new case average.

The nation’s obsession with vote counting in the presidential election has obscured the rising cases. But President- elect Joe Biden is set to name his coronavirus task force today, and his running mate Kamala Harris posted an understated message Sunday on Twitter.

“COVID-19 is still here. Please continue to wear a mask and practice social distancing.”

U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams said half of the states are in the red or orange zones for new coronavirus outbreaks, but added that is not the whole story: “We could also hit historic highs in daily hospitalizations this week.”

Just a week ago, the United States had a daily average of a little more than 80,000 coronavirus cases, just under 45,000 hospitalizations on average and 823 deaths. Saturday’s totals were more than 135,000 new cases, about 55,000 people were hospitalized and 1,133 new deaths were reported.

Scott Gottlieb, former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, said there has to be a new focus at the national and state level.

“We’re past the election,” Gottlieb said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “And I think they need to focus on what we can be doing nationally. We’ve been sort of arguing politically over what I think is a false dichotomy, a straw man, that it’s really a choice between lockdowns and no lockdowns. And that’s not the case.”

“Down this current path lies [a] continued rapid rise in cases. More people on ventilators. Higher numbers of people dying. More survivors with long term consequences. Hospitals under pressure until they can’t provide care for everyone anymore.”

TOM INGLESBY

DIRECTOR OF THE JOHNS HOPKINS CENTER FOR HEALTH SECURITY