As coronavirus cases increased in recent weeks, President Donald Trump and his allies had cited the decline in deaths as a hopeful sign that the country was becoming more adept at fighting the virus. But public health experts had consistently warned that progress could be reversed, as deaths are a lagging indicator of the pandemic’s trajectory.
After regularly downplaying the virus, Trump acknowledged Tuesday that the outbreaks will likely only escalate before the country can begin to contain the virus.
“Some areas of our country are doing very well, others are doing worse,” Trump said Tuesday night as he returned from his press conferences on the response to the pandemic, nearly three months after they ended. regular briefings. “Probably unfortunately it will get worse before it gets better, something I don’t like to say about things, but that’s the way it is.”
The United States has been regularly registering more than 60,000 new infections daily in the past week, and the country’s ability to detect and track the virus faces a renewed strain. In total, the United States has reported more than 3.8 million cases and more than 140,000 deaths. Earlier this month, modelers projected that the death toll across the country is on track to exceed 200,000 by Election Day.
Infections have increased in the vast majority of states, prompting some governors to reverse their opposition to mask mandates across the state and other officials to again crack down on bars and other businesses.
Both the number of cases and hospitalizations remain high in Arizona, California, Florida and Texas, the most intense points of the virus. Those states account for nearly 40 percent of new deaths reported, while deaths are increasing in about half of states in the past two weeks, according to a tracker maintained by The New York Times.
