COVID-19 Deaths In U.S. Near 200,000 As Multiple States Battle Renewed Case Surges

KEY POINTS

As of Monday, the U.S. was a few hundred away from reported deaths reaching 200,000
Texas, California, and Florida led weekend case surges with over 9,000 new confirmed cases
Multiple health institutes warned deaths could surge significantly during flu season as colder weather from fall and winter sets in

While the U.S. neared 200,000 reported deaths from the coronavirus pandemic on Monday, multiple states were reporting new surges in cases as the fall and winter flu season looms.

“If you look at what's happening around the country right now, there's an unmistakable spike in new infections,” former Food and Drug Administration commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb told CBS on Sunday.

“And you're also seeing declines in hospitalizations that we were achieving starting to level off," he continued. "I would expect them to start going up again as well. There's about 15 states with a positivity rate is 10% or higher, which is deeply concerning. There's about 30 states where the RT, the rate of transfer, is above one, meaning they have an expanding epidemic.

“So right now we're seeing a resurgence of infection.”

As of Monday, John Hopkins said the U.S. had over 6.8 million confirmed cases and 199,525 reported deaths from coronavirus. Texas led the weekend surge with 11,657 new confirmed cases since Friday, followed by California with 11,131 new cases and Florida with 9,298 new cases.

Other states that also saw a notable rise in cases included Wisconsin, Tennessee, Illinois, Missouri, North Carolina, Minnesota, Georgia, and Oklahoma.

There is also growing concern the fall and winter flu season could lead to another surge in cases as weather turns colder for much of the U.S. Dr. Anthony Fauci previously warned about this possibility while speaking at Harvard Medical School.

“We need to hunker down and get through this fall and winter, because it’s not going to be easy,” Fauci said during the panel discussion. “We’ve been through this before. Don’t ever, ever underestimate the potential of the pandemic. And don’t try and look at the rosy side of things.”

This fear is now reflective in multiple fall/winter COVID-19 forecasts, many of which have deaths skyrocketing over the next three months.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s latest ensemble forecast for the next four weeks says anywhere between 3,000 and 7,100 deaths could be reported. This would potentially bring the number of U.S. deaths from coronavirus up to between 207,000 and 218,000 by Oct. 10.

The University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation had a more somber warning for the rest of 2020.

In its Thursday report, the IHME warned the number of reported deaths in the U.S. could hit around 378,000 by Jan. 1. The report said it was down from its previous report on Sept. 10, but it warned “the U.S. epidemic would only be less than half over.”