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On Friday, the United States surpassed 13.2 million registered cases of coronavirus. The number of COVID-19 patients treated in US hospitals on Friday reached 90,000. Over the past month, the number of hospitalized patients has doubled.
The number of hospitalizations is the highest since the pandemic began, and in some hospitals capacity has been exhausted, Reuters reports. Infection rates have risen across the United States in recent weeks.
The news came as many Americans are gathering to celebrate Thanksgiving and spend a weekend with family, raising fears that an even worse spike of infection may be in sight.
Since February, a total of 264,000 people in the country have died as a result of the coronavirus, according to the Johns Hopkins University survey.
Lie down in the hall
As crown patients filled beds at a hospital in the city of Madison, Wisconsin, American Tracy Fine had to lie in pain for 13 hours in the corridor of an emergency room, writes The New York Times.
Her nurse must have been so stressed that she couldn’t remember what condition Fine was in, and it must have been a long time before she received food or pain medication, the newspaper writes.
At another Missouri hospital, Shain Zundel’s headache turned out to be a brain abscess. Usually one has to have surgery for the condition within a few hours, but Zundels had to wait a day until doctors found a neurosurgeon and a bed for him. They eventually found him in an Iowa hospital, 60 miles away, The New York Times reports.
Up negative block
Last week it was announced that Dr. Michael Osterholm, one of incoming President Joe Biden’s newly formed covid-19 team, will air the possibility of sending the country on a four- to six-week lockdown to prevent the spread of the virus, writes CBS.
Osterholm himself told CNBC that the United States is headed for “covid hell,” and that the hardest days will come in the coming months.
Despite the growing contagion trend, opinion polls show that the majority of Americans are in favor of the blockade. According to CNN, 49 percent of Americans said they would stay home for a full month if recommended by health authorities. It is down 67 percent this spring. It is true that all the survey responses were obtained between October 19 and November 1.
The poll shows big differences between Democrats and Republicans. Forty percent of Republicans surveyed say they would accept a shutdown, while the number among Democrats is 87 percent.
