United States Reaches Record 7-Day Average Number of Coronavirus Cases | CNN

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The latest spike in covid-19 infections has raised the seven-day average of new daily cases to levels never seen since the pandemic began.

The seven-day average of new cases reached 68,767 on Sunday, surpassing the previous peak of 67,293 reported on July 22.

The two highest days for new cases were Friday and Saturday, with more than 83,000 new cases added each day.

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Health experts say the resurgence of cases they warned would occur in the fall and winter is here, and that it could be the worst the United States has seen so far.

Rising numbers in the US, where there have been a total of more than 8.6 million infections and 225,230 people have died, show that the nation is at a "dangerous tipping point," the former commissioner told CBS News. from the US Food and Drug Administration, Scott Gottlieb.

on Sunday.

"We are entering what will be the steep slope of the curve, of the epidemic curve," Gottlieb told CBS 'Margaret Brennan on "Face the Nation."

Although cases are increasing across the country, Gottlieb said things will start to look worse in the next two to three weeks.

He said that he does not foresee the implementation of a forceful political intervention that could stop the spread.

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"If we don't do that, if we lose this window, this will continue to accelerate and it will be more difficult to control," he said.

A nationwide order to wear masks could be a necessary inconvenience

A nationwide masks mandate could be one way to control the virus, Gottlieb wrote in an op-ed for The Wall Street Journal.

The headline of the article is "Winter is Coming: Time for a Masks Mandate."

"A term may be expressly limited to the next two months," Gottlieb wrote, adding that it is easier to wear a mask in winter than in summer.

"The drawback would allow the country to preserve health care capacity and keep more schools and businesses open."

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With deaths expected to rise this winter, lawmakers will have to take steps to curb the spread, Gottlieb wrote.

There is no longer support for reinstating stay-at-home orders from spring.

If 95% of Americans wore masks in public, more than 100,000 lives could be saved in the United States through February, according to data released Friday by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington.

"If people don't wear masks, then maybe we should demand it," Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told CNN's Erin Burnett on Friday.

Gottlieb wrote that the orders to wear masks have become divisive only because of the way some politicians and political commentators have framed the issue.

"States should be able to choose how to enforce a mandate, but the goal should be to make masks a social and cultural norm, not a political statement," he wrote.

State leaders are on guard again

More than two-thirds of states have reported an increase in cases in the past week, and no state currently reports an improvement of more than 10%.

As cases increase, state leaders push for prevention among their residents.

In El Paso County, Texas, where the surge in cases has brought all hospitals and intensive care units to full capacity, officials have implemented a curfew from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. during next two weeks, El Paso County Judge Ricardo Samaniego said during a virtual press conference Sunday night.

"The purpose of the curfew is to limit mobility in the community," Samaniego said.

Even in Arkansas, where new cases fell to 797 on Sunday after days of more than 1,000 cases a day, Governor Asa Hutchinson warned residents not to get too hopeful.

"Our cases decreased yesterday, as the trend tends to be over the weekend," Hutchinson said in a tweet on Sunday.

"While we may want to relax, it is critical that we remain disciplined as cases continue to increase nationally."

A vaccine may not protect against the virus until 2021

Researchers may be racing to develop a vaccine, but Gottlieb said it is unrealistic to think that one will be ready for distribution in time for this surge.

"This vaccine is not going to affect the outline of what we are going to go through, which will unfold in the next two or three months," he said.

Even if a vaccine is available this year and goes to the first group of patients, likely the elderly and healthcare workers, they will not have protective immunity until sometime in 2021, Gottlieb noted.

"We will know if a vaccine is safe and effective at the end of November, beginning of December," Fauci told the BBC on Sunday.

“The number of doses that will be available in December will certainly not be enough to vaccinate everyone;

will have to wait several months until 2021 ».