More than 20m Americans could have contracted
Covid-19, experts say
New estimate from CDC indicates many without symptoms
have or had the disease, senior administration officials said
Joanna
Walters in New York, Mario Koran in Oakland and agencies
Fri 26 Jun
2020 00.47 BSTFirst published on Thu 25 Jun 2020 19.45 BST
US government
experts believe more than 20 million Americans could have contracted
coronavirus – 10 times more than official counts, as cases are now rising in
more than half of states and a new warning came of the risk of “apocalyptic”
infection in major cities.
The new
estimated numbers from the federal agency the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC) indicate that many people without symptoms have or have had
the disease, senior administration officials said on Thursday.
The news
came as Texas, one of the most populous US states, has seen a surge in Covid-19
cases and the governor on Thursday announced that he would have to pause the
next phases in what has been a rapid reopening of business. Cases are now
rising in 27 US states, up from 22 earlier this week.
The CDC’s
new estimate that for every diagnosis of coronavirus in the US it is likely
that 10 more people are or have been infected is based on serology testing used
to determine the presence of antibodies that show whether an individual has had
the disease, the officials said.
The
officials, speaking to a small group of reporters on Wednesday night, said the
estimate was based on the number of known cases, currently nearing 2.4m in the
US, multiplied by the average rate of antibodies seen from the serology tests,
about an average of 10 to one.
“If you
multiply the cases by that ratio, that’s where you get that 20 million figure,”
said one official.
If true,
the estimate would suggest the percentage of US deaths from the disease is
lower than thought. More than 122,000 Americans have died from the disease
since the pandemic erupted earlier this year.
The
estimate comes as government officials note that many new cases are showing up
in young people who do not exhibit symptoms and may not know they have it.
Officials
said young people with no symptoms, but who are in regular contact with
vulnerable populations, should proactively get tested to make sure they do not
spread it.
“We have
heard from Florida and Texas that roughly half of the new cases that are
reporting are people under the age of 35, and many of them are asymptomatic,”
one official said.
The CDC has
sent 40 response teams to help deal with the outbreaks, they said.
More than
36,000 new cases of Covid-19 were recorded nationwide on Wednesday, just shy of
the record 36,426 on 24 April, at the height of the first wave of the pandemic.
The rises are concentrated on states that were spared the brunt of the initial
outbreak or which moved early to lift restrictions aimed at curbing the virus’
spread.
Heavily
populated Florida, Texas and California have seen dramatic rises in cases this
month.
California
has seen a 69% rise in coronavirus cases in just two days, Gavin Newsom, the
governor, said on Wednesday, as the state continues to battle a surge of new
infections and hospitalizations.
The state
has witnessed an alarming jump in cases as communities reopen from lockdown
restrictions. Los Angeles county now leads the nation with more than 88,500
cases, according to Johns Hopkins University.
Numbers
have shot upward in recent days, rising from 4,230 on Sunday to 7,149 by
Tuesday, according to public health data. Last week Newsom announced
Californians must wear masks in most public settings to curb the spread of the
virus
Meanwhile
as of Thursday morning, Texas is pausing all additional reopening, as the state
grapples with a surge of infections.
“As we
experience an increase in both positive Covid-19 cases and hospitalizations, we
are focused on strategies that slow the spread of this virus while also
allowing Texans to continue earning a paycheck to support their families,” the
Republican governor, Greg Abbott, said in a statement.
“The last
thing we want to do as a state is go backwards and close down businesses. This
temporary pause will help our state corral the spread until we can safely enter
the next phase of opening our state for business.”
Abbott
announced earlier today that all hospitals in Harris, Travis, Bexar and Dallas
counties must also stop elective surgeries, as many hospitals report their
intensive care units are nearing full capacity.
If the
current Texas infection rate continues, Houston could become the hardest-hit
city in the US, CNN reported. Infection numbers are also rising in Dallas,
Austin and San Antonio, Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical
Medicine at the Baylor College of Medicine in Texas, told CNN.
“The big
metro areas seem to be rising very quickly and some of the models are on the
verge of being apocalyptic,” he said.
Texas
officials reported yesterday that they had confirmed 5,551 new cases of
coronavirus in the past 24 hours, setting a new single-day record.
In
contrast, New York state, previously the world’s worst coronavirus hotspot, has
kept tight restrictions in place and seen its hospitalization and death rates
decline steadily in recent weeks.
Meanwhile
officials across the US have reacted with alarm to the Trump administration’s
plan to end federal support for some Covid-19 testing sites, warning it could
cause further spread of a disease and calling the move “irresponsible”.
The White
House confirmed on Wednesday it will no longer fund 13 testing sites, including
seven in Texas and sites in Illinois, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Colorado, at
the end of June.
Joe Biden,
speaking in Pennsylvania, accused Trump of mishandling the US response to the
pandemic. “He’s like a child who can’t believe this has happened to him,” Biden
said on Thursday. “All his whining and self-pity. Well, this pandemic didn’t
happen to him; it happened to all of us. And his job isn’t to whine about it.
His job is to do something about it.”
Biden
criticized Trump for continuing to attack the Affordable Care Act as the
country grapples with this crisis. The administration, for example, is still
part of a lawsuit aimed at overturning the ACA, also known as Obamacare.
“If Donald
Trump refuses to end his senseless crusade against health coverage, I look
forward to ending it for him,” the former vice-president said.
Joan E Greve contributed reporting
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