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Stephanie Anderson and her partner, Gypsy, from Los Angeles, wait to depart from Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport before Thanksgiving break during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, in Atlanta, Georgia, USA November 23, 2020. REUTERS / Chris Aluka Berry
State and federal officials pleaded with Americans to stay home and redouble efforts to reduce the coronavirus pandemic on Tuesday, championing unpopular public health measures as record hospitalizations pushed healthcare professionals to the brink.
“We are on fire with COVID,” Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear said on CNN after enacting new restrictions last week, including retail curbs and school closings. “We are just trying to do the right thing.”
The United States surpassed 86,000 hospitalizations for COVID-19 on Tuesday, a record, as 30 of the 50 states reported record numbers of patients this month.
That has taxed already exhausted healthcare providers, as more than 1,500 coronavirus deaths and 171,000 new cases accumulate daily on average.
US Surgeon General Jerome Adams called on Americans to grasp “the gravity of the moment” and stay vigilant by wearing masks, avoiding crowds and washing hands frequently until promising vaccines and therapies can be administered.
“We just need you, the American people, to wait a little longer,” Adams, a member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, told Fox News in an interview.
Adams urged people to adjust their plans ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday, which has led to the busiest air travel since the early days of the pandemic in March, with millions of people flying despite the dangers of a crowded airport. US health officials recommended last week that Americans avoid traveling during vacations.
Global drug companies have reported promising trial results in vaccine development, which could be given to high-priority patients in December.
Meanwhile, the US government will begin shipping Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc’s newly licensed COVID-19 antibody combination therapy starting Tuesday.
In Texas, where the western city of El Paso has been devastated by the virus, the state said it has established a facility to treat COVID-19 patients with bamlanivimab, an experimental therapy that received emergency approval from the Administration of US Food and Drug The so-called infusion wing has been provided with 1,000 doses.
But hospitals need immediate relief.
FILE PHOTO: A child is carried on a stretcher to an ambulance at the entrance to the University Medical Center emergency room amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in El Paso, Texas, USA. November 23, 2020. REUTERS / Ivan Pierre Aguirre
After hitting America’s big cities in the spring, COVID-19 has now taken over rural areas and small towns across the United States. Case rates in the 12 Midwestern states are more than double that of any other region, according to the COVID Tracking Project, more than 20 times from mid-June to mid-November.
Many Midwest hospitals are severely lacking in beds, equipment and clinical staff, providers say, asking staff to work longer hours and more frequent shifts.
“There is a disconnect in the community, where we see people in bars and restaurants, or plan Thanksgiving dinners,” said Dr. Kelly Cawcutt, infectious disease physician at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. As healthcare workers, he said, “we feel a little downcast.”
Further south, Mississippi warned that the COVID-19 admissions surge of the past two weeks was unsustainable.
“Stay home, stay safe, and keep yourself and others well,” the Mississippi State Department of Health said in a tweet Tuesday.
While many Americans have chosen to ignore the best medical advice and put their families at risk, others have cut back on Thanksgiving plans or moved their Christmas meals outdoors.
Jerard Gunderway, 44, who was driving from Massachusetts to North Carolina for Thanksgiving, said his family was limiting the reunion to him, his wife and his stepdaughter.
“Just family during this situation right now. Keep everyone safe, ”he said from a rest stop in Connecticut. “I try to keep it low-key until we find out all this.”
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What you need to know about the coronavirus.
For more information on COVID-19, call the DOH hotline: (02) 86517800 local 1149/1150.
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