Immunologist Dr Anthony Fauci warns that COVID-19 infection rates in the US are far too high, as the number of COVID-19 cases in the US surpassed 8 million on Friday. The country has averaged more than 53,000 new daily cases for the past week -- an increase of more than 55 per cent in just over a month, according to Johns Hopkins data.
Idaho, Illinois, North Carolina and Wyoming have reported highest daily COVID-19 case count to date on Friday. "You can't enter into the cool months of the fall and the cold months of the winter with a high community infection baseline," Fauci said. He said the country is heading into a very difficult winter.
According to an AFP report, 400,000 new cases were reported worldwide on Friday alone. India comes in second with 7.4 million cases and Brazil with 5.1 million.
Europe, in the meantime, is also bracing for more COVID-19 cases, after London, Paris could now be placed under restrictions to mitigate the spread of the virus. Merkel appealed to German citizens to meet with fewer people whether inside or outside, while, Belgium closed bars and restaurants across the country. There have been 218,000 in the US because of the coronavirus. The Swiss government will meet on Sunday to discuss steps to be taken to further curb the virus.
Measures will increase mandatory mask-wearing in indoor public spaces, a ban on gatherings of more than 15 in public. Experts have again emphasised on the importance of mask-wearing and said that other measures like social distancing and handwashing could save lives. According to IHME (Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation) projections, mask-wearing could save the lives of more than 70,000 Americans in the next three and a half months.
