The World Health Organization or WHO says coronavirus in the US had not peaked yet. it is only experiencing sustained community transmission.
As the coronavirus cases near 10 million worldwide, the WHO stresses that countries in the Americas, including North, South and Central America, are suffering sustained community transmission.
“And as such, the journey for them is, unfortunately, the pandemic for many countries in the Americas has not peaked," said Mike Ryan, executive director of the WHO’s emergencies program, during a press conference at the agency’s Geneva headquarters.
The number of confirmed Covid-19 cases globally rose by 133,326 on Tuesday, according to WHO. Moreover, more than a third of those cases originated in Chile, Mexico, Brazil, Peru, and the US. Based on WHO's data, the US had a combined total of 58,583 new cases in a single day.
The US is still worst-hit country in the world with more than 2.3 million coronavirus cases and 121,279 deaths as of Wednesday, based on the data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
Resurgence of coronavirus
The seven-day average of daily new coronavirus cases in the US rose by over 32% compared to one week ago, according to a CNBC analysis of Hopkins data. Cases are rising by 5% or more in 30 states across the country, such as Texas, Arizona, Montana and Idaho.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious disease expert, finds the resurgence of coronavirus infections in several parts of the US disturbing.
While there is a decline in Covid-19 cases in the New York state, other states have increasing cases that “reflect an increase in community spread,” Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, notedd. “That’s something I’m really quite concerned about.”
Coronavirus cases in the US had increased to about an average of 30,000 infections per day at the height of the outbreak before stabilizing to around 20,000 infections per day, Fauci said. “Now we’re going up [again]. A couple of days ago, there were 30,000 new infections.”
“That’s very troublesome to me,” he said.
Slow burn
Public health specialists are worried about the slow burn of infection throughout the summer causing a massive resurgence of the virus during the fall.
Meanwhile, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation predicts there will be over 200,000 coronavirus-related deaths in the US by October.
Robert Redfield, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, encourages Americans to take flu vaccinations as both viruses may add a “tremendous burden” to US hospitals.
Meanwhile, the WHO tells global leaders to reamin “vigilant” on social distancing measures, asking countries not to swiftly reopen businesses.
Ryan noted that parts of the Americas have not marked a low enough level of transmission “with which we can achieve a successful exit of successful and social distancing measures.”
“I would characterize the situation in the Americas in general and in Central and Latin America as still evolving,” he said. It will “likely result in a sustained number of cases and continued deaths in the coming weeks.”
Dr. Fauci previously expressed frustration over the public’s response to the pandemic. He says Americans are not following the health guidelines.
“Clearly, we have not succeeded in getting the public as a whole uniformly to respond in a way that is a sound scientific, public health and medical situation,” Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said during an interview with CBS News Radio’s Steven Portnoy.
“And it’s unfortunate. And it’s frustrating,” he said.
