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As of Wednesday, more than 100,000+ Americans were hospitalized due to the coronavirus (COVID-19), per the COVID Tracking Project. Unsurprisingly, U.S. health experts anticipated cases to surge due to holidays and holiday-related travel. Families and friends are traveling all around the U.S. across many states. While we are seeing more than 100,000 hospitalizations, the total number remains at large because only partial data is being reported.
Holiday travel is only part of the problem, however. The bigger problem here is that hospitals are running out of beds or are simply turning away new patients because there is no space for them. This limits the care available to both coronavirus patients and those patients with other health care needs.
Leading up to Thanksgiving, coronavirus infections rose by about 10%. This trend has continued and will likely get even worse as holiday season continues in December and through beginning of 2021. It’s worth mentioning that COVID Tracking Project warned of a “double-weekend” pattern. The tracker stated that “far fewer people will be tested on Thanksgiving Day, and perhaps on the day after as well, and then the usual weekend pattern will begin.”
Due to the backlog, cases and numbers continue to rise. The backlog is expected to clear up in the coming weeks, which will help clear up the confusion in the astonishing, yet not surprising, rise in case numbers.
As of Wednesday, the U.S. reported 13.7 million cases, 1.4 million tests, 196,000 cases, and 2,733 deaths. So far, 264,522 people across the country have died from coronavirus. It’s worth mentioning that Wednesday’s death count is the second highest reported since May 7 when the number reached 5,000 for the first time.
