The United States is bracing for a huge surge in deaths due to COVID-19 infections even as it reported the third straight day on Friday of confirmed cases in excess of 50,000.
U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams, a U.S. Navy admiral, on Friday noted while the death rate has remained flat amid the resurgence in infections, "deaths lag at least two weeks and can lag even more." This means a surge in deaths can expect to be recorded over the next two weeks.
One characteristic of the spike in new cases is deaths remaining under 1,000 per day. The U.S. death toll stood at about 680 on July 1, 690 on July 2 and 620 on July 3, according to data from Worldometer.
Medical experts say this is because most of the new patients are below 40 years old instead of the 60 year olds that were the main victims in the initial wave of the disease.
Adm. Adams confirms the majority of new deaths before were occurring on people who were 60, 65 and older. "Now the majority of cases are in people who have an average age of 35, and so those folks are going to have less comorbidities, they're going to be less likely to end up in the hospital and to die."
He urged young people to protect their grandparents by wearing face masks and social distancing. U.S. health experts agree the painful resurgence of COVID-19 took place after Memorial Day on May 25 when millions of Americans and a number of states decided to unwisely disregard social distancing guidelines.
More Americans refused to wear face coverings outside their homes or willfully disregarded other social distancing rules by congregating at bars, restaurants and beaches. States lifted their lockdowns rules and ignored federal guidelines on safe reopenings.
The result of these costly mistakes is the ongoing wave of new infections engulfing 40 out of 50 states as of Saturday. All but 10 states reported a jump in new cases over the past 14 days, according to the COVID Tracking Project. The resurgence is at its most severe in Arizona, Texas and Florida. These three states along with California account for more than half of the new COVID-19 cases in the U.S. this week. Arizona, California, Florida and Texas reported a combined 25,000 new confirmed COVID-19 cases Thursday.
Worse, 36 states said they're seeing an increase in the percentage of tests coming back positive for the COVID-19 virus. But the figure that's most troubling now is the fact new cases have remained above 50,000 daily from July 1 to 3. The daily toll hit 51,000 on July 1, 57,000 on July 2 and 55,000 on July 3. The Fourth of July, America's Independence Day, is expected to continue this unwanted trend.
It was only on June 30 when cases rose by more than 40,000 in one day for the fourth time in the past five days.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), on Wednesday told a U.S. Senate committee the U.S. can expect 100,000 daily cases if current trends continue. He said he "would not be surprised" if new COVID-19 cases reach 100,000 per day.
"Clearly we are not in control right now," he testified, saying not enough Americans are wearing face masks or social distancing.
