The US has sealed out 2020 with the most contagious and deadliest month since the COVID19 pandemic has hit the country. The nation has crossed the 20 million mark of confirmed COVID19 cases. As per the latest data, more than 77000 people have lost their lives in the month of December due to COVID19. Around 6.4 million people have been diagnosed with the disease due to the arrival of the new variant of the virus and delayed efforts to vaccinate people. Therefore, December 2020 has been the most infectious month since the pandemic has started. Experts have said that the second more notorious month has been April 2020, which has seen more than 58000 deaths due to COVID19. The SARS-CoV-2 virus has claimed around 346000 lives so far across the US. The new strain of the virus, which has been identified in the UK, has affected many states in the US as well in the month of December. Around four cases of the new variant of the virus have been identified in Colorado, California, and Florida. The Vice-Chairperson of Preventive Medicine at Northwestern University, Dr. Mercedes Carnethon has said that health experts are confident that the new strain of the virus has spread everywhere across the world.
Dr. Mercedes Carnethon has claimed that adults under the age of 20 years are mostly affected by the new strain of the virus, which is a worrying fact. Carnethon has said that the adult population is always on the move and quite active. Adult people are the ones who perform some of the essential works such as delivery work and factory work. However, these people are not in line to be vaccinated anytime soon. Although the Trump administration has been committed to immunize 20 million by the end of 2020, however, around 2.8 people have been inoculated since mid-December 2020 in the US. The officials in states have reported that there has been a lack of trained staff to administer the vaccine and speed up the vaccination program, which has caused a delay in vaccination as well. Many states in the US have been dealing with rising cases of COVID19 and scarcity of infrastructure to attend to patients coming in large numbers.
Experts have said that even if the vaccine is available, cases will continue to shoot up. They are suspecting yet another surge in cases in the upcoming weeks after Christmas and New Year holidays. New York has surpassed its record of daily new cases for the second consecutive day this week. The state has witnessed 15700 new cases in a day. The state of Virginia as well has exceeded its record of daily new cases with 5239 cases. As states have been witnessing the rising cases of COVID19, officials have said that they are planning to vaccinate at least 1 million people this month. As per the record, the rate of hospitalization has increased by eightfold in California in the last two months.
Los Angeles as well has seen an increase by tenfold in the rate of hospitalization and admission in the intensive care unit. As hospitals are getting flooded with patients, intensive care units have run out of beds for patients. Hospital authorities are forced to arrange makeshift wards in tents, arenas, conference rooms, and classrooms to compensate for lack of space. California has witnessed more than 25000 deaths due to COVID19, which has made it the third state to cross this massive figure after New York and Texas. Public Health Director of Los Angeles County Barbara Ferrer has said that if health officials have been able to mitigate the spread of the virus in a better way, these deaths would not have taken place. Ferrer has urged people to follow precautionary measures to prevent the further spread of the virus. The States of Nevada, North Carolina, and Wyoming as well have reported new single-day case records this week.
Paul is an American-based writer covering Latest business trends. Paul cover Business and media for many news sites. He has been breaking news and writing features on these topics for major publications since 2012. Paul prefers writing about business news keeping science and technology into perspective.
