World Insights: COVID-19 to remain "a fact of American life" as infections top 40 mln

Source: Xinhua| 2021-09-07 15:11:13|Editor: huaxia

WASHINGTON, Sept. 6 (Xinhua) -- U.S. COVID-19 cases surpassed 40 million on Monday, driven by a continued surge in infections due to the unchecked spread of the Delta variant.

PANDEMIC-POUNDED NATION

As of Monday, the country's caseload was 40,016,654 with a death toll of 649,426, according to a tally by the Johns Hopkins University (JHU).

To date, 13 U.S. states have each confirmed at least 1 million COVID-19 cases, showed the tally.

California topped the state-level caseload list, with over 4.4 million cases, followed by Texas with more than 3.7 million and Florida with over 3.3 million.

The United States remains the nation worst hit by the pandemic, with the world's most cases and deaths, making up more than 18 percent of the global caseload and nearly 14 percent of the global deaths.

The staggering 40 million milestone came as weary Americans spent their second Labor Day, 19 months into the pandemic.

The U.S. COVID-19 caseload reached 10 million on Nov. 9, 2020, crossed 20 million on Jan. 1, 2021, and exceeded 30 million on March 24.

Daily COVID-19 infections are more than four times what the United States was seeing on Labor Day last year, or a 316 percent increase, USA Today reported on Monday, citing data from the Johns Hopkins University.

Hospitalizations are also up by 158 percent compared to Labor Day weekend a year ago, according to data from the Department of Health and Human Services.

The current seven-day moving average was 153,246, which was 123.6 percent higher than the figure observed approximately one year ago and 1,217.0 percent higher than the lowest record on June 18, 2021, according to the latest weekly report by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The current seven-day daily average of new hospital admissions on Aug. 25-31 was 12,156, up 1.7 percent from the previous week, said the report. The current seven-day moving average of new deaths was 1,047, an increase of 3.7 percent compared with the previous seven-day moving average.

DEBATES OVER MASKS, VACCINES

The fourth surge of the pandemic in the United States was largely attributed to the highly contagious Delta variant and millions of Americans who refuse to get vaccinated, though the U.S. has stockpiled tens of millions of doses of COVID-19 vaccines.

The vaccine, as well as other precautions such as mask wearing, have been politicized across the country, particularly in Southern states including Texas and Florida. Conservatives do not want the government to force them to do anything, whereas liberals tend to back mask and vaccine mandates.

Many people in the South and rural areas nationwide argue that constitutional freedoms far outweigh health concerns -- even in a pandemic. At a recent rally in the state of Alabama, former U.S. President Donald Trump was booed after he urged a crowd of his supporters to get vaccinated.

Polls also show those who decline the jab fear its possible side effects more than the virus itself, which have been fueled by unproven stories about the vaccine on social media.

As of Saturday, 53 percent of the U.S. population had been fully vaccinated, showed CDC data.

Masks are recommended in schools by the CDC, yet Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Texas Governor Greg Abbott, among some other Republican counterparts, have banned mask mandates in schools, although many schools are ignoring them.

Noticeably, in quite a few states, many lawsuits have been filed either for or against masks in schools. A Florida judge threw out DeSantis' order prohibiting school mask mandates late last month.

Nearly 4.8 million children have tested positive for COVID-19 as of Aug. 26, since the onset of the pandemic in the United States, according to a report by the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children's Hospital Association.

UNFORESEEABLE FUTURE

"It seems the narrow window to wipe the coronavirus completely off the face of the globe has slipped through our unvaccinated fingers," said Politico on Monday in a report titled "Why We Can't Turn the Corner on COVID".

"There will be no quick and clear turning point ahead in the COVID-19 pandemic, no 'X' to mark on the calendar indicating that the worst is past and we can be confident that going forward there will be fewer cases, fewer deaths, fewer hospitals stuffed to their dangerous limits," it said.

"A summer that began with plunging caseloads and real hope that the worst of COVID-19 had passed is ending with soaring death counts, full hospitals and a bitter realization that the coronavirus is going to remain a fact of American life for the foreseeable future," said New York Times in a report on Sunday.

Things just became much harder for millions of people who are out-of-work across the United States, as enhanced federal unemployment insurance put in place during the pandemic ended on Monday.

That means some 9 million people will lose all benefits and another 3 million will see weekly checks reduced by 300 U.S. dollars, according to an estimate by The Century Foundation.

Meanwhile, the timeline of the pandemic reached the United States was rewritten after a Kansas woman who died in early January 2020 is now listed as the first known person to die with COVID-19 in the country.

Three months ago, the woman's doctor quietly added "COVID-19 pneumonia" as one of the causes of her death, reported The Mercury News on Thursday.

Her original death certificate said she'd died only from a stroke and chronic obstructive lung disease. But in May this year, that changed, said the report, adding her family had no idea until this week.

"Her death is now included in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's official record of U.S. COVID deaths, but the agency wouldn't comment further," it said.

Previously, the first known COVID-19 death in the United States was thought to have occurred on Feb. 6, 2020, in a woman living in San Jose, California. Enditem

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