A top public health official has said that the actual number of cumulative Covid-19 infections in the United States is around 10 times the reported number, which stood at 2.42 million Friday as the surge in new cases continued unabated with infections going up by nearly 40,000 in another one-day record.
Daily fatalities that had fallen into three-digit numbers have rebounded into the thousands at 2,423, taking the toll to 124,415.
The spike in new infections was being reported mostly from souther and western states of Florida, Texas, Arizona and California — some of whom paused their reopening, such as Texas — and were fueled by younger people in their 20s, 30s and 40s who are socialising more as stay-at-home restrictions, are lifted, and without taking the usual precautions.
“Our best estimate right now is that for every case that’s reported, there actually are 10 other infections,” Robert Redfield, head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), told reporters Thursday, taking up the estimate of infections to at least 24 million.
Blood samples collected for testing antibodies showed that for every confirmed infection there were 10 people with antibodies but no symptoms.
“The traditional approach of looking for symptomatic illness, and diagnoses obviously underestimated the total number of infections,” Redfield said. “Now that serology tests are available, which test for antibodies, the estimates we have right now show about 10 times more people have antibodies in the jurisdictions tested than had documented infections.”
New infections went up by 39,972 in the United States in the past 24 hours, marking a new daily high, spotlighting that epidemic is far from over, as the Trump administration had been keen to convey in the president’s hurry to put behind a crisis that could cast a shadow on his re-election.
Vice President Mike Pence, who leads the White House coronavirus task force, said Friday Covid-19 cases were rising “precipitously” in 16 states, mostly in southern United States , as the number of new infections went up to 40,000 in the last 24 hours, marking a new one-day high.
Fatalities were up to 126,000, he added.
The spike in new infections was being reported mostly from souther and western states of Florida, Texas, Arizona and California — some of whom paused their reopening, such as Texas — and were fueled by younger people in their 20s, 30s and 40s who are socializing more as stay-at-home restrictions, are lifted, and without taking the usual precautions.
“Roughly half of the new cases are Americans under the age of 25,” said Pence, naming Florida and Texas, specifically, leading a briefing by task force after almost two months, in recognition of the gravity of the crisis brought on by the new surge.
New infections went up by more than 40,000 in the United States in the past 24 hours, marking a new daily high and serving a grim reminder that the epidemic was far from over, as the Trump administration had been keen to convey in the president’s hurry to put behind a crisis that could cast a shadow on his re-election.
Some states halted their reopening plans as a result of increasing cases. Texas Governor Greg Abbott has put it on hold entirely, and brought back some restrictions. “The last thing we want to do as a state is go backwards and close down businesses,” he said in a statement on Thursday. But in light of the growing gravity of the crisis in the state, that’s exactly what he did Friday morning, by reviving restrictions on bars and restaurants and certain outdoor activities.
Florida also brought back some restriction, prohibiting sale of alcohol at bars.
Things are far worse than the existing numbers conveys. “Our best estimate right now is that for every case that’s reported, there actually are 10 other infections,” Robert Redfield, head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and a member of the task force, told reporters Thursday, taking up the estimate of infections to at least 24 million.
Blood samples collected for testing antibodies showed that for every confirmed infection there were 10 people with antibodies but no symptoms.
“The traditional approach of looking for symptomatic illness, and diagnoses obviously underestimated the total number of infections,” Redfield said. “Now that serology tests are available, which test for antibodies, the estimates we have right now show about 10 times more people have antibodies in the jurisdictions tested than had documented infections.”
US treasury department, in the meantime, was reported to have mailed 1 million checks, worth an estimated $1.4 billion of the Covid-19 relief package of $2 trillion for businesses, families and the unemployed, to dead people, according to a watchdog report to US congress. More than160 million Americans received direct payments in all that added up to $269 billion.
