When the U.S. crossed 5 million coronavirus cases this weekend, the milestone was met with little fanfare as some school districts planned to reopen and thousands descended on Sturgis, South Dakota, for the world’s largest annual meeting of motorcycle enthusiasts.
There have been more than 160,000 deaths in the country since Saturday, according to figures from NBC News. No other nation has approached the United States’ infection rates, with Brazil reporting more than half of the U.S. figures: 2,962,442.
The new heights are unlikely to mark a plateau as a highlight if the nation continues with the virus without a coherent national strategy on mask-wearing and social distance, said Dr Gabe Kelen of Johns Hopkins Medicine.
“There just doesn’t seem to be enough will in enough parts of the country to treat this like the other countries have,” said Kelen, director of the emergency medicine department for Johns Hopkins. “We have politicized it tremendously. And a large number of people are in disbelief or tired of the idea of staying.”
On Saturday, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot criticized people who grabbed the waterfront of the city without observing social distance. “Don’t make us take steps backwards,” she tweets.
In Los Angeles, Mayor Eric Garcetti instructed the Department of Water and Power to turn utilities into party houses that repeatedly fight the rules after a woman was fatally shot at a large gathering at a house.
“These big parties are insecure and could cost Angelenos their lives,” Garcetti said at a news conference Wednesday.
In Thousand Oaks, California, a pastor promised to open his church to 1,500 congregations Sunday in a battle with a court to stay closed.
California has the most cases in the nation – 553,851 – but the state with the most deaths remains New York, with 33,583.
Florida had the second-highest number of cases: 526,577.
President Donald Trump promised economic relief on Saturday when he signed executive orders to pay end-of-year payroll taxes to those earning less than $ 100,000 a year and delivering federally improved $ 400 unemployment benefits through Jan. 31.
Kelen said it is possible that the pandemic could slowly subside as it falls, and there is evidence that older Americans are wearing mask-wear and are more socially distant than younger people.
“There’s a bit of glimmer that some of the most vulnerable manage the threat,” he said.
What’s more, he said, the rapid development of faxes is reason for optimism.
“That works psychologically,” Kelen said. “It certainly gives us hope that we have a fax machine somewhere around the corner.”
At this rate, however, it will take about 40 days to reach another milestone in the US: 200,000 dead.
“Before the year closes, we’re almost 200,000 to be seen,” Kelen said. “Is the worst behind us? If it’s a little better than the worst, that’s still good.”
