The US Health Department has revealed that the United States recorded a heartbreaking mark of 700000 deaths due to the COVID19 pandemic. The surge fueled by the delta variant has started to reduce, which has given some relief to over-exhausted hospitals. Health experts have said that within three and a half months the death toll due to COVID19 has gone up from 600000 to 700000 deaths in the US due to the spread of the delta variant. They have claimed that the death toll is quite bigger than the population of Boston. The new horrifying death toll in the US due to the SARS-CoV-2 virus is quite exasperating for public health experts and medical professionals who have been working on the frontline as COVID19 shots have been available for all eligible Americans for the last six months in the country and these vaccines have been proved to quite effective against the virus. Experts have said that COVID19 shots can reduce hospitalizations and death due to the virus to a large extent.
As per the data, nearly 70 million people in the US are still not immunized that has given an edge to the virus and its variants to spread rapidly. A head nurse who is at UF Health Jacksonville, Debi Delapaz has said that at one point the medical facility has been losing eight patients to COVID19 infection every day during the surge in summer. However, there is a sign of improvement as well. Experts have said that the number of people who have been admitted to the hospitals due to COVID19 across the country has reduced to 75000 from more than 93000 hospitalizations in the early weeks of September. There has been a decline of nearly one-third in the number of new cases in the last two weeks in the country. The number of new cases of COVID19 has reduced to around 112000 cases per day on average.
The Us Health Department has revealed that at present, the number of deaths due to COVID19 has well is on the downswing in the last week. Nearly a week ago, the country has reported more than 2000 deaths per day on average due to COVID19, this week; it has come down to 1900 deaths per day on average. Health experts have said that as more people have started wearing facemasks and have started taking shots, the summer surge has eased out. A decline in new cases as well might have taken place due to many people have achieved herd immunity as a large number of people in the country have been diagnosed with COVID19. On the other hand, an experimental pill for COVID19 that has been developed by Merck has been proved to be effective in reducing hospitalizations and deaths due to COVID19 by half in initial clinical trials. If the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) grants sanction to this pill, it will be the first pill for the treatment of COVID19.
At present, almost all therapies for COVID19 that are authorized by the US government are administered via an IV or infection. Dr. Anthony Fauci, who is a leading infectious disease expert in the United States has said that some people might take these encouraging trends as a reason not to get the shots. He has said that it is good to see these positive trends but people should not shy away from taking COVID19 shots. Health experts have said that they are yet to see how the flu season is going to affect the already exhausted hospital staff and health care systems. It is still uncertain whether those people who have refused to take shots will consider getting the vaccines or not. The chief of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, Mike Osterholm has said the SARS-CoV-2 virus will definitely find those who are not immunized with the vaccine or do not have natural immunity from a past infection.
An expert of biostatistics at Emory University, Natalie Dean has said that it is uncertain how the SARS-CoV-2 virus is going to react in the flu season. The expert has said that there might be some expected peaks in the winter, as people will gather indoors for thanksgiving and Christmas. She has said that due to the size and diversity of the country, certain places might witness some outbreaks and surges. Natalie Dean has said that ambiguity of human behavior as well can change the picture of the current pandemic situation. She has said that people take precautions due to the risk a disease involves and it reduces the transmission of the pathogen. When they feel safer, they start interacting more that can trigger a new wave of the virus. Dean has told that the model of an infectious disease is quite different from the model of weather. She has said that a model that has been developed by the University of Washington has shown that new cases of coronavirus will surface again this fall, however, protection from COVID19 shots and natural immunity induced by prior infection will restrict the virus from claiming more lives.
Still, the model has shown that around 900000 more people will lose their lives to COVID19 by January 2022 and the overall death toll will rise to 788000 in the US. Experts who have come up with this model have said that half of these predicted deaths can be prevented if almost everyone practices mask-wearing in public places. An expert of health metrics sciences from the University of Washington, Dr. Ali Mokdad has said that the practice of mask-wearing has already gone in the incorrect direction. He has said that to slow down the number of deaths and hospitalizations that might take place in the winter, everyone should follow COVID19 appropriate behaviors such as maintaining social distancing, mask-wearing, and personal hygiene.
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