Corona virus in the United States: As the United States approaches 350,000 deaths due to Covid-19, one model expects that about 115,000 more people will die in the next four weeks.

Friday’s gloomy situation also means the nation has recorded the largest number of Covid-19 infections by far. It’s twice what India – the country with the second largest number of cases – and three times what Brazil – the third country in the ranking – reported.

But the worst may not be over yet: Experts fear that in the coming weeks – after travel and gatherings – the United States may see another increase in cases that could also lead to a spike in hospitalizations and deaths.

Dr Anthony Fauci told CNN earlier this week that the country had seen an increase that “just got out … out of control” and that the coming weeks could be worse.

“Once you reach large numbers of people for dinner inside, and there is poor ventilation and circulation, then you will face a problem,” he said. “This is what we are concerned about – that in addition to the troop increase, we’re going to have an increase imposed on that increase that could make January worse than December.”

“I think we just have to assume that it gets worse,” Fauci added.

How are the countries at the beginning of the new year

In Arkansas, Governor Asa Hutchinson said Friday that the state has reported more than 4,300 new cases – a record that he said comes “in the increase after travel and gatherings at Christmas.”

Georgia announced on Friday a total of more than 8,700 new cases of Covid-19 in the state – a new record. Maryland on the same day reported the second largest number of daily cases. Meanwhile, New York added nearly 16,500 new cases – a day after it recorded the highest number of cases ever in a single day.

Governor Andrew Cuomo said: “As the year 2021 begins, I encourage all New Yorkers to look to their best angels and continue the practices we know are stopping the spread of this virus – wash your hands, social distancing, and wear a mask.” statement.

Texas health officials reported a record high number of Covid-19 hospitalizations across the state for the fifth consecutive day, with more than 12,400 patients.

Intensive care unit capacity in many parts of the state remains dangerously low. In Southern California and the San Joaquin Valley, there are no beds available. A health official said earlier this week that the surge in patients had pushed hospitals to “the brink of disaster.”

This is because some hospitals have infrastructure issues that prevent them from providing patients with high pressure oxygen supplies.

The California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services said design and construction experts from the US Army Corps of Engineers are being deployed to the Los Angeles area “to assess and update oxygen delivery systems as necessary in six hospitals.”

The office said hospitals in the region are treating an “unprecedented” number of Covid-19 patients and “internal oxygen delivery systems that have been established in many old hospitals are overburdened due to the volume of oxygen flow required to treat patients with breathing problems that arose from Covid-” 19 “.

The testing company says the virus variant is not prevalent in the United States

California health officials said for the first time on Wednesday that a 30-year-old man from San Diego tested positive for the UK variant. On Thursday, county health officials told CNN that three new cases of the variant have been reported in San Diego.

A county spokesman said: “The discovery of additional cases leads provincial health officials to believe that the new strain of the virus is circulating in the community.”

Officials said the new cases were found, of two men in their forties and a man in his 50s.

“Contact tracing shows that two men did not travel outside the district, while the third case has not been fully investigated,” the officials said. “None of the men had any known interaction with each other or with the other confirmed case.”

But while some experts have said the variant is likely to be circulating in the United States, testing so far does not indicate that it is common across the country, Genomics Corporation Helix told CNN.

Helix said only four out of 31 samples tested positive for the mutation pattern first identified in the UK. The genotype was first discovered by a test flaw that technicians call the S gene leak.

“We also know that other labs in Northeastern Leakage samples from the S gene have not found the British variant in their collections,” Dr. James Law, co-founder and president of Helix, told CNN by email.

“We cannot say with confidence when P1.7.1 appeared in the United States,” Luo said. But it is not common, which indicates that it has not been in circulation for long.

Luo added that the United States is not looking seriously.

“Currently, the US is doing less sequencing than many other countries – a recent report from (GISAID) estimated that the US is sequencing 0.3% of positive cases versus the UK at about 7%.”

Fauci: The United States will continue dosing the vaccine weeks later

To date, vaccines approved in the United States require two doses a few weeks apart. Fauci told CNN on Friday that the nation will continue to do it this way and will not follow the UK’s decision to delay the second doses.

“I’m not going to endorse it,” Fauci said when asked about the new dosing regimen in the UK. “We will continue to do what we do.”

The UK has adopted this strategy in order to give as many people their first dose as quickly as possible, saying it provides a measure of protection.

“The truth is we want to stick to what the science tells us, and the data we have for both of them [vaccines] It indicates that you are giving a prime count, followed by a batch in 21 days with Pfizer and 28 days with Moderna. At the moment, this is the way we are following, and this is the decision that was made, “Fauci said.

“We make our decisions based on the data. We do not have any data to give one dose and wait longer than the normal period” to administer the second dose, he added.