Sunday December 27, 2020
Corona numbers after public holidays
Fauci: The worst is yet to come
Despite Corona, many US citizens traveled over Christmas. The immunologist Fauci therefore assumes that there could be a drastic increase in the corona numbers after the holidays.
Because many Americans went away for Christmas despite the contrary advice from the health authorities, the renowned US expert Anthony Fauci fears a further increase in corona infections in the New Year and that the worst of the pandemic will come after the holiday season. In view of the recently very high number of around 200,000 confirmed infections per day, this is “quite worrying,” the immunologist told CNN.
“We are really at a critical point,” said Fauci. “We could very well see an increase after the holiday season – in the sense of Christmas, New Year.” The reasons for this would be that US citizens travel and celebrate the holidays together. The situation could worsen dramatically over the next few weeks, warned Fauci, and the pressure on the health system would continue to increase. On average, almost 120,000 infected people were recently treated in hospitals in the USA, and more than 2,000 people died every day after an infection.
More than 330,000 corona gates in the USA
On Wednesday, the day before Christmas Eve, nearly 1.2 million people were handled at US airports – the highest figure since the pandemic began. On Friday, 1.13 million people went through the security checkpoints of the competent authority TSA. Last year there were 2.5 million that day. In the US, a country of 330 million people, there have been around 19 million confirmed infections since the pandemic began. More than 332,000 people died from Covid-19 disease, data from Johns Hopkins University showed.
Fauci had turned 80 earlier this week. Before his birthday, he had said he would take his own advice for his birthday as well as for Christmas. “I have to practice what I preach to the country,” said the immunologist. “Although I would love it very much if my children, who live in different parts of the country, came together to celebrate my birthday and Christmas, I don’t think that would be sensible.”