Dr Robert Redfield. CDC Director has warned of the grimmest health crisis in the upcoming months in the wake of an unprecedented rise in COVID-19 Cases in the USA.
He went on to urge the citizens to exercise mandatory precautions such as wearing face masks, observing good hand hygiene, and social distancing. This he said would go a long way in preventing the steep rise in cases recently. This highly contagious respiratory virus had claimed over 2,000 lives in a single day recently.
This serious message was issued after the Thanksgiving holiday observances, wherein millions of Americans did not pay heed to any safety measures and warnings. They flouted rules pertaining to non- essential travel and social gatherings, as a result of which there was a surge in Covid- 19 infections and hospitalizations. Redfield mentioned that this not only results in loss of precious lives nut also strains the hospitals and health care systems to capacity. In a live stream presentation that was hosted by U.S Chamber of Commerce Foundation, he said that he was looking at the months from December to February as being the most trying and bringing in “ rough times .”
President- elect Joe Biden too echoes this bleak forecast and said that they were likely to lose another 250,000 people till January. The total number of Americans who have died till date form COVID – 19 is over 270,000. As predicted by the University of Washington’s influential Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation the toll could go up to 450,000 by March 2021. A stricter adherence to mask protocols and other safety measures was the need of the hour. These warnings came after health experts in the USA welcomed Britain’s decision of the emergency use approval of the Pfizer BioNTech SE developed COVID – 19 vaccine.
