The United States sets a death record for covid-19 as researchers point out asymptomatic cases

“These findings are currently in bold, italic, and underlined,” he said. Jay C. Butler, Deputy Director of CDC Infectious Diseases, and co-author of a study published in the journal JAMA network open..

As illness experts had predicted for months, the coronavirus spread quickly and wildly in the New Year, and Thursday’s one-day death record highlights the threat. In the last seven days, US infectious diseases, hospitalizations and deaths have hit record highs. Cases reached a record 277,135 on Saturday. And by Thursday, more than 132,000 people had been hospitalized nationwide for covid-19, a disease caused by the virus.

More than 363,000 Americans have died since the start of the pandemic, and the CDC Latest forecast By the end of January, the death toll is projected to be between 405,000 and 438,000.

There is no evidence that the surge is caused by a more contagious strain known as B117. If so, it would have appeared in more genomic sequences analyzed by researchers in recent weeks. However, health officials fear that this variant could exacerbate the bad situation, take more patients to hospitals and increase the death toll of covid-19.

Thursday, three states — — Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Texas — Reported detection of B117 joining California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia and New York. Health experts say they believe that variants of the virus can exist in most parts of the country. This variant is not considered to be at high risk of illness or death in individual patients. However, experts warn that it is more contagious, which can result in more people developing covid-19 and thus more deaths overall.

“We are in the fight against time,” said Jennifer Nuzzo, an epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins Health and Security Center. “We need to speed up our actions so that the virus doesn’t spread further and that this variant becomes dominant in the distribution. The clock is ticking.”

The need to delay the infection is particularly pronounced in Los Angeles County, Barbara Ferrer, director of public health, said Wednesday that the area is in the midst of a “major-scale health crisis.” The county recently reported more than 200 deaths from covid-19 daily, with approximately 8,000 hospitalized for covid-19. Across California, 583 people were reported dead on Thursday.

Mr. Feller described himself as “more problematic than ever” and repeatedly pleaded for residents to follow public health guidance to slow the spread and reduce the burden on hospitals.

“In Los Angeles County, the number of people dying every day has doubled, and this reality has overturned every aspect of our healthcare delivery system,” Feller said. “Our tragedy continues until we get together to change our behavior.”

At the Arcadia Methodist Hospital northeast of downtown Los Angeles, managers have announced that they have adopted crisis management guidelines. According to state guidelines, resource-deficient hospitals are at a level of critical care, shifting the focus to providing the best possible care under the circumstances, which can pose a risk to patients. I am forced to make a choice.

The other three hospitals have notified the California Public Health Service that they are approaching or are in the process. This will mobilize local and state resources to improve patient care. The agency did not identify the other three.

Methodist hospital officials said they have activated a triage team that includes doctors, community members, bioethics experts, and mental care providers. “Make difficult but necessary decisions about allocating limited resources.”

Clifford R. Daniels, senior vice president and chief strategy officer at the hospital, emphasized that as of Thursday, no care was assigned and all patients were receiving the care they needed.

“We want to never get there,” Daniels said. “Rejecting care for someone is an antithesis for all doctors and nurses in training. We don’t want to be there. It’s almost impossible to think that it might happen in the 20th century metropolis of Los Angeles. Makes me emotional. “

According to Daniels, the administrator needed to redirect resources to accommodate 111 covid-19 patients, including 30 in the intensive care unit. Some people on ventilators are not in the ICU, which is usually treated, but instead are in other wards. He said staffing was of utmost concern. Hospitals pay nurses three times as much as usual and “look everywhere” to find more.

According to Daniels, the National Guard provided five health care workers and one supervising nurse, and after the hospital moved to crisis management, the National Guard sent a few more. Hospital officials believe that the effects of Christmas and New Year’s Eve rallies have not yet been realized, and they are preparing for a surge in growth, he said.

“I’m worried that if demand for hospital services continues at the current pace, we’ll face situations we never imagined,” he said.

A study published Thursday by the CDC on how the coronavirus spreads is: Previous quote Contribution of asymptomatic spread.

“It’s a confirmation, but it’s nice to see the confirmation,” the epidemiologist said. Richard MenziesDirected the McGill International Tuberculosis Center in Canada and had nothing to do with this study. “These are pretty reliable and solid results.”

In the model baseline scenario, 59% of all infections came from asymptomatic individuals. This includes 35% of new cases from people who have been infected with others before they have symptoms and 24% from people who have never had symptoms.

Many factors affect the spread of the coronavirus. Researchers have clearly taken a simple approach, which Butler calls a “pretty simple mathematical model” and uses it to determine the duration of infection and the rate of infection from people who have never developed symptoms. We changed and evaluated some scenarios.

The model consistently predicted asymptomatic spread and accounted for about half of viral infections.But Huge sevicInfectious disease experts at the University of St Andrews in Scotland claimed that some of the model’s assumptions were flawed.

Cevik also stated that the study did not consider the environment in which diffusion occurs.

“Asymptomatic carriers may be important, but they may be more important in long-term care facilities and homes,” says Sevic. “It may mean that high-risk populations need to be tested much more targeted, as opposed to mass screening.”

Whether the vaccine blocks coronavirus infection is not yet clear and was not the scenario featured in this model. “Data on the effects of vaccines on asymptomatic infections are very limited,” Butler said, but expects more information in the coming months.

In a clinical trial of two vaccines approved by US regulators in December, vaccination was concluded as follows: Very competent To prevent symptomatological illness. However, those trials did not determine whether vaccinated people could still spread the pathogen.

“If they are asymptomatic but equally contagious, it will have a significant impact on the epidemic,” Menzies warned.

As of Thursday, more than 21 million coronavirus vaccines had been distributed to the state, with just under 6 million doses, according to CDC data.

Francis S. Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, admitted in an interview with the Washington Post this week that distribution in the United States ended in a “difficult beginning,” but he was “not completely surprised by it.” No, “he said.

“The next few weeks will be very important to see how this delivery system works more smoothly,” Collins said.