Audio: The Current, Deadly U S Coronavirus Surge Has Peaked, Researchers Say scpr.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from scpr.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Has the Current U.S. COVID-19 Surge Reached Its Peak?
It’s been a tough winter for nurses and healthcare workers here in the U.S. The last few months have been some of the deadliest on record in terms of the coronavirus. It took the U.S. just five weeks to go from 300,000 deaths to 400,000. In the U.S. right now, someone is dying from COVID-19 every 26 seconds. The CDC is warning that the death toll could reach as half a million by mid-February.
If you’re tired of grim statistics, there’s some good news: Health officials now believe that the current surge in the U.S. is coming to an end. In 35 states, the number of COVID-19 cases is falling week over week, and in 18 states, the number of COVID-19-related deaths is falling as well.
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STEVE INSKEEP, HOST: Is it possible that the calamity of the pandemic has finally peaked? Some researchers think so. The number of new cases has begun to drop. NPR health correspondent Rob Stein is on the line. Rob, good morning.
ROB STEIN, BYLINE: Good morning, Steve.
INSKEEP: Got to say, it doesn t feel like a peak.
STEIN: Yeah, yeah. You know, that s because things are still really bad right now. You know, lots of people are still getting infected, sick and dying. But if you look carefully at the numbers, the daily infections look like they hit a high about a week or so ago, depending on how you crunch the data. And since then, it looks like the number of people catching the virus every day has finally started falling. Here s one of the researchers I ve been hearing this from, Ali Mokdad at the University of Washington.