As experts desperately pleaded for Americans to follow guidelines during holidays, millions ignored advice, and now another record is hit.
The United States notched a record number of coronavirus cases in 24 hours for the third day running as the pandemic tightens its grip on the world’s hardest hit country.
A tally by Johns Hopkins University showed the world’s worst-hit country — which has seen a dramatic virus resurgence in recent weeks — reached nearly 230,000 new infections and 2527 COVID-related deaths on Saturday alone.
More than 280,000 have died in the US since the first death linked to the virus in early February.
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For two weeks, the US has regularly topped 2000 deaths per day, as it had in the spring at the height of the first wave of the country’s outbreak.
US health officials warned of a surge after tens of millions of Americans ignored medical advice and travelled to celebrate last week’s thanksgiving holiday despite pleas from authorities to stay home.
US President Donald Trump appeared at a rally for the first time since votes were cast in the US election, attracting a huge crowd in Georgia as the country continued to record hundreds of thousands of new coronavirus cases every day.
In Georgia, close to 5,000 new cases were recorded on the same day a huge crowd of Trump supporters attended a rally in the state.
Parts of the US have also gone back into lockdown, with California enforcing new restrictions from Sunday evening in 11 counties amid fears a surge in cases could overwhelm hospitals, which were down to 12.5 per cent capacity in intensive care units.
That’s the plan at least, but in some areas police have said they won’t enforce the rules.
“Compliance with health orders is a matter of personal responsibility and not a matter of law enforcement,” Orange County Sheriff Don Barnes said in a statement.
”Orange County Sheriff‘s deputies will not be dispatched to, or respond to, calls for service to enforce compliance with face coverings, social gatherings, or stay-at-home orders only.”
“These closures and stay-at-home orders are flat out ridiculous,” Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco said on Friday.
A seemingly exasperated US Center for Disease Control sought to remind people of the relatively simple steps they could take to slow the spread of the virus.
“If we don’t act together and do what we can to slow the spread, thousands more could die,” the agency warned on Twitter.
— with AFP.
