The US on Saturday set another record on its daily coronavirus infections, with more than 270,000 new cases. US now has a total of 20.4 million cases and deaths passing 350,000.
The hardest-hit country in the world by the pandemic, the US has seen surging coronavirus infections and deaths in recent months, setting record after record. Top US government scientist Anthony Fauci has warned just days after Christmas that the worst of the pandemic may be yet to come.
“That’s what we’re concerned about – that in addition to the surge, we’re going to have an increase superimposed upon that surge which could make January even worse than December,” he told CNN.
He added: “I think we just have to assume that it’s going to get worse.”
The US has already started its coronavirus vaccination program. More than 4.2 million people have already received their first jabs, with 13 million doses already distributed. However, President Donald Trump had promised that the country would see 20 million inoculations before the end of 2020.
Medical experts in the country said the US is not “breaking point” and fighting “world war three”.
On New Year’s Day alone, another 160,606 new cases and 2,051 deaths were recorded.
The University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation has projected that more than 100,000 could die in the next month alone.
“We really are at a breaking point,” Nicole Van Groningen, a doctor at Cedars-Sinai medical center in Los Angeles, told CBS. “We are setting records every day in terms of patients we are caring for patients who have Covid-19.”
In terms of vaccinations, the US is having problems with the distribution as comprehensive vaccination plans have yet to be developed, leaving states who already received the vaccine unsure of what to do.
The country is also facing new fears as the new coronavirus variant, called B.1.1.7., has already infected three people in Colorado, California and Florida. According a reanalysis of more than two million tests, the more contagious variant from the UK may have been in the US since October and already be widespread.
