Confirmed COVID-19 cases in the United States surpass the number of cases in other nations.
Just over 83,500 cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed in the U.S., which include over 1,000 deaths, according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.
China has close to 82,000 cases, and Italy comes in third worldwide with about 80,500 cases.
The U.S. is the third-most populous country in the world with 330 million residents. According to the New York Times, the U.S. has great potential to spread the virus. The state of New York saw 100 deaths in a single day.
According to Dr. Sara Keller, an infectious disease specialist at Johns Hopkins Medicine, the U.S. is now the new global epicenter, or place with the highest level of activity, for COVID-19.
“This could have been stopped by implementing testing and surveillance much earlier—for example, when the first imported cases were identified,” said Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at Columbia University in New York.
Since March 23, California has nearly doubled the number of tests conducted. Still, Gov. Gavin Newsom does not think that is enough.
“We want to see more tests in the state of California, smarter and more targeted testing, and more community surveillance,” Newsom said.
California health officials predict more than half of California’s population will become infected in the next seven weeks.
Scott Morrow, the San Mateo County’s health officer, voiced both gratitude and disappointment in his March 23 statement. He urged everyone to abide by the shelter-in-place orders currently in place.
“Unless everyone does their part and follows the County’s Shelter-in-Place order and the Governor’s Safer at Home order, we will be facing an Italy-type catastrophe very soon,” Morrow said. “These orders are not recommendations; they are rules to be followed.”
