Coronavirus: fears of 4000 deaths a day as US cases double

Coronavirus cases in the US have doubled in a month to a record four million.

A passenger checks in for a flight at Los Angeles International Airport. America should prepare for a ‘surge upon a surge’ in coronavirus cases after the Thanksgiving holiday. Picture: AFP

Coronavirus cases in America have doubled in a month to a ­record four million and it is feared that Thanksgiving travel could soon bring the number of people dying each day to 4000.

The number of recorded infections in November surpassed four million at the weekend. There were 1.9 million cases in October.

The steep rise, seen in every corner of the country, is expected to accelerate in the coming days as the effect of Americans travelling for Thanksgiving, which was on Thursday, begins to bite.

Despite warnings not to, almost 50 million people were thought to have driven to holiday gatherings, and about six million flew. More than one million travellers passed through airport security checks on Wednesday alone, the highest on any single day since the start of the pandemic.

More than 170,000 people are now testing positive on an average day, and on Friday the figure ­exceeded 200,000 for the first time, with 1400 deaths, although these figures were probably ­inflated by lags in reporting over Thanksgiving.

Leana Wen, an emergency doctor and professor at George Washington University, said that the number would rise much higher. “We cannot let our guard down,” she told CNN.

“The vaccines will make a big difference in the spring and the summer; they’re not going to make a difference right now.

“If anything, we are rounding the corner into a calamity. We’re soon going to exceed well more than 2000 deaths, maybe 3000, maybe 4000 every single day here in the US.”

On Sunday public health ­experts desperately urged Americans to mitigate the effect of Thanksgiving gatherings.

“What we expect, unfortunately, as we go through the next couple of weeks into December, is that we might see a surge super­imposed upon the surge we’re already in,” said Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. “I don’t want to frighten people, except to say it is not too late to do something about this.”

He urged those returning home to get tested, wear masks, socially distance and avoid large groups of people.

Dr Fauci suggested that greater restrictions would have to be introduced.

“I think we are going to have to make decisions as a nation, state, city and family that we are in a very difficult time, and we’re going to have to do the kinds of restrictions of things we would have liked to have done, particularly in this holiday season, because we’re entering into what’s really a precarious situation,” he said.

Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus response co-ordinator, said that travellers “have to assume that you were exposed and you became infected and you really need to get tested in the next week”.

She added: “We know people may have made mistakes over the Thanksgiving time period. If you’re young and you gathered, you need to be tested about five to 10 days later, but you need to assume you’re infected and not go near your grandparents and aunts and others without a mask.”

The Times