With an average of around 800 victims of the Covid-19 daily, health experts refuse to consider that the "first wave" of the pandemic has been brought under control in the United States. " The virus has not changed, it is not behind us and we are not in a normal situation "Tom Ingelsby, director of the Center for Health Security at Johns-Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, insisted to the press on Thursday, June 11. At the height of the crisis, in April and May, the country registered 2,000 deaths per day.
This warning echoes the concerns of the scientific community regarding an outbreak of the disease in certain states since the end of deconfinement. He also intervenes when government communication on the pandemic has stopped for several weeks and that the American president, Donald Trump, announced Wednesday the resumption of his campaign meetings, after three months of interruption, on June 19 in Oklahoma . However, it is specified at the time of registration that participants must " assume all risks associated with Covid-19 And do not hold the campaign team accountable for contamination.
2 million contaminations
The disease has so far claimed nearly 114,000 lives in the United States, a figure probably lower than the reality. Not all states report data the same way and half of them do not count deaths " likely Due to the virus, a choice that contradicts the recommendations of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The United States has also passed this week the mark of two million cases of contamination and, every day, 20,000 additional people are affected. If it shows an increase in the number of screening tests, this figure also indicates an active circulation of the virus, according to experts. "It would seem that the country has given up and accepted the idea that the disease is now part of everyday life", lamented Jeffrey Shaman, a teacher at the Columbia University School of Public Health, on the NPR radio station.
The situation varies greatly from region to region, but around 20 out of 50 states have experienced a sharp increase in the number of cases and hospitalizations in recent days. In several southern states where containment was late and deconfinement carried out without always taking the health situation into account, the trend worries public health experts. Arkansas, Utah, Arizona and Texas have recorded at least 35% increases in hospital admissions since the last weekend in May, which marked the reopening of many businesses and leisure activities.
New York under control
Texas was one of the first to embark on this path in early May, and, despite recent figures, its Republican governor has just announced that the latest social distancing rules will be relaxed. He was imitated by colleagues from Arkansas and Georgia, where the number of cases is also on the rise, after being one of the states most reluctant to apply social distancing measures. Only Utah has slowed the pace of openness. For its part, three weeks after the containment was lifted, Arizona was again under pressure on the number of places in emergency services. California also sees a strong increase in the cases of infected people, without however observing an increase in hospitalizations. In contrast, New York, which was the epicenter of the pandemic at its inception, appears to be controlling the spread of the coronavirus. But the reopening was later and the city still does not return to normal.
Insisting on the use of tests, tracing of patients and quarantining them, Mr. Ingelsby also expressed his concern about the impact of the demonstrations of the past few days on the spread of the virus, even if the mass rallies take place outdoors, and even if the majority of people wear a mask. " Effects will not be known for several weeks "Said the researcher. He also warned against indoor groupings. Trump, for his part, maintains plans to hold the Republican Party’s nomination convention in August in a closed space in Florida, a state that is currently experiencing an acceleration in the number of cases. The event could bring together thousands of people.
In this context, the Secretary of the Treasury, Steven Mnuchin, excluded, Thursday, any recourse to a new stop of the commercial activities, betting on " medical advances " before the end of the year.
