Edited by: JV Staff
Last week the United States averaged more than 100,000 new daily COVID-19 cases, with more than 128,000 recorded Friday.
U.S. hospitalizations have significantly increased, forcing hospitals in Midwestern and Southern states to take urgent action to accommodate floods of new patients.
Infections are surging in all U.S. regions as the coronavirus death toll continues to climb. The U.S. has 9.8 million coronavirus cases, with more than 237,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University statistics.
Months after the Sturgis motorcycle rally in August in the Black Hills of South Dakota, which drew nearly half a million people, public health officials say the event’s legacy is hundreds of coronavirus infections across the U.S.
Dr. Benjamin Aaker, president of the South Dakota State Medical Association, told The New York Times, “We don’t know if we’ll ever know the full extent” of the infections originating from Sturgis. Last week, South Dakota averaged more than 1,000 daily coronavirus cases.
President-elect Joe Biden is scheduled Monday to announce the members of a 12-member coronavirus task force for his administration, set to begin in January.
Europe, meanwhile, is experiencing a second wave of COVID-19.
“The light at the end of the tunnel is still quite a long way off,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel said recently. Germany reported more than 23,000 new cases. Saturday.
On Friday, France had more than 60,000 new cases. France has 1.7 million cases and more than 40,000 COVID deaths, according to Johns Hopkins.
India reported more than 45,000 new infections Sunday. Johns Hopkins said the South Asian nation has recorded 8.5 million cases so far.
AP reported that President Donald Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows has been infected with the coronavirus as the nation sets daily records for confirmed cases for the pandemic.
Two senior administration officials confirmed Friday that Meadows had tested positive for the virus, which has killed more than 236,000 Americans so far this year. They offered no details on when the chief of staff came down with the virus or his current condition. His diagnosis was first reported by Bloomberg News.
One administration official said several other staffers had tested positive as well.
Meadows traveled with Trump in the run-up to Election Day and last appeared in public early Wednesday morning without a mask as Trump falsely declared victory in the vote count. He had been one of the close aides around Trump when the president came down with the virus more than a month ago, but was tested daily and maintained his regular work schedule.
It marked the latest case of the virus in the West Wing, coming not even two weeks after Marc Short, Vice President Mike Pence’s chief of staff, and other aides tests positive for the virus. Trump, first lady Melania Trump, and at least two dozen others tested positive for the virus in early October, after Trump held large gatherings of people not wearing face-masks, including the ceremony announcing the nomination of now-Justice Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court.
Trump has repeatedly said that the nation is “rounding the turn” on the pandemic, which was top of mind for voters in Tuesday’s election.
COVID-19 cases in the U.S. have increased more than 50% in the past two weeks. According to an AP analysis of data from John Hopkins University, the 7-day rolling average for daily new cases rose from 61,166 on Oct. 22 to 94,625 on Nov. 5. (VOA & AP)