Abuja (Sundiata Post) – The US death toll from the coronavirus pandemic climbed past 3,000 on Monday, making the outbreak more deadly than the September 11 terrorist attacks that killed 2,977, but the number of daily fatalities are expected to soar over the next two weeks.
Total deaths across the United States were at least 540 on Monday alone, and modelling by the University of Washington School of Medicine predicted that deaths will number more than 2,000 a day from April 10 through April 21. By August 4, 82,141 people could be dead from the outbreak in the United States, according to the model.
Reported cases climbed to more than 163,000 on Monday as the number of new infections jumped at least 20,000 in one day, reports dailymail.co.uk.
The United States has the most confirmed cases in the world, a number that is likely to soar when tests for the virus become more widespread.
President Donald Trump told a White House briefing that more than 1 million Americans had been tested for coronavirus – less than 3 percent of the population. While the United States has ramped up testing after a series of setbacks, it still lags countries like Italy and South Korea on a per capita basis.
U.S. health officials are urging Americans to follow stay-at-home orders until the end of April to contain the spread of the virus, which originated in China and has infected about three-quarters of a million people around the world.
“If we do things together well – almost perfectly – we could get in the range of 100,000 to 200,000 fatalities,” Dr. Deborah Birx, coordinator of the White House’s coronavirus task force, told NBC’s Today show.
But deaths per day will drop to below 100 after June 9, according to the predictive analysis. Some people could continue to die of the virus as late as July, although deaths should be below epidemic levels of 10 per day by the first week of July.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said at a White House briefing that he expected a coronavirus outbreak in the fall, as well, but he said the nation would be better prepared to respond.
The worst is still to come however; The analysis also highlights the strain that will be placed on hospitals with the number of hospitalized patients expected to peak nationally by the second week of April – although the peak may come later in some states.
The analysis predicts that the number of US deaths could vary widely, ranging from as low as around 38,000 to as high as around 162,000, due in part to disparate rates of the spread of the virus in different regions.
Culled from New Telegraph
