US Coronavirus: The country recorded 195,000 new Covid-19 cases in a day. An expert says spread is now ‘faster’ and ‘broader’ than ever

The spread is ‘faster’ and ‘broader’ than ever

Experts this week predicted things will likely get worse before they get better.

“This is faster. It’s broader. And what worries me, it could be longer,” she said.

Colorado officials said a new modeling report estimates about one out of every 49 residents in the state is infected with Covid-19 — by far the highest prevalence since the virus arrived there. In Washington state, Gov. Jay Inslee said the “state is on fire,” with the virus “raging” across its communities.

Those announcements come ahead of Thanksgiving week, when health officials fear many Americans will opt to visit family and friends and further fuel the spread of the virus — many times, without knowing it.

“This means at least half of new infections come from people likely unaware they are infectious to others,” the agency’s website reads.

What this means for the country

The rising numbers have brought some hospital systems to their knees and prompted state leaders to take action to help curb the spread.

At least 24 hospital leaders warned the American Hospital Association they are experiencing staffing shortages, Nancy Foster, the association’s vice president for quality and patient safety policy, said. Those concerns have been raised in states including Texas, Wisconsin, Illinois, Minnesota and North and South Dakota, all of which have recently seen infections climbing, she added.

And those shortages are hard to fix when pulling from a workforce of health care employees “justifiably experiencing a significant emotional and physical toll due to the impact of the pandemic,” Foster said in a statement to CNN.

And in rural parts of the country, the challenge is often greater.

Of about 2,000 hospitals considered to be rural, about 1,700 have 50 beds or fewer and about 1,300 of them have 25 beds or fewer, according to Tom Morris, associate administrator for rural health policy in the federal government’s Health Resources and Services Administration.

“We’re not talking about large facilities. We’re not talking about a lot of ICU capacity,” Morris said during the National Institutes of Health rural health seminar.” In a lot of these hospitals, they’re able to offer an ICU of one of two beds.”

Responding to the crisis, multiple governors this week announced new measures to combat the surging infections and relieve strained hospital systems.

There is good news, too

Those include wearing a mask, social distancing, avoiding crowds and washing hands regularly. The University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation projected this week about 65,000 lives could be saved by March 1 if 95% of Americans wore masks.

The CDC and the Kansas Department of Health and Environment looked at case trends the month before the mandate and for the month after the mandate and found that in the 24 counties that required people to wear masks in public, there was a net decrease of 6% in cases. Meanwhile, in counties without the mandate, the disease continued to surge, with a net increase in cases of about 100%.

And soon, there could be more reinforcements in the battle against Covid-19.

While the application for EUA is “encouraging,” the Infectious Diseases Society of America stressed Friday that a transparent review of Pfizer’s data is still needed.

And if the vaccine is given the green light, “clinical trials and data collection must continue,” Dr. Barbara Alexander, president of IDSA, said in the statement.

“Measures that include wearing masks, frequent hand washing, maintaining physical distance and restricting the size of gatherings will remain crucial,” the statement said. “Finally, new federal funding must be provided for widespread, fair and equitable vaccine distribution in addition to campaigns to build vaccine confidence.”