US Coronavirus: US tops 7 million cases as 23 states report rising numbers

• It was another 27 days before the US surpassed 3 million cases on July 8.

• It took just 15 more days for the US to hit 4 million cases on July 23.

• After another 17 days, the US hit 5 million cases on August 9.

• It took 22 days to hit 6 million cases on August 31.

• And it took 25 more days to hit 7 million cases on Friday, September 25.

The US hit 7 million cases the same day that 23 states, most across the US heartland and Midwest, reported an increase of new cases compared to the previous week, according to a CNN analysis of Johns Hopkins data.

Case numbers in about 16 states are holding steady, while 11 — Arizona, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Indiana, Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Vermont and Virginia — saw a decline.

California became the first state to surpass 800,000 infections, according to Johns Hopkins data. Texas is second, with about 747,500 cases, followed by Florida with some 695,000 cases.

Nationally, the rate of new cases is up 9% from last week, with a seven-day average of more than 43,000 cases nationwide.

Early on in the pandemic, health experts had warned of the threat of a second wave of cases. But given the fact new cases never declined significantly, Dr. Anthony Fauci said the nation remains in the first wave.

“Rather than say, ‘A second wave,’ why don’t we say, ‘Are we prepared for the challenge of the fall and the winter?'” said Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious disease expert.

How to prepare

Despite his state’s rising cases, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Friday announced he had signed an order moving Florida into Phase 3 of its reopening, allowing restaurants and bars to fully reopen at 100% capacity.

“There will not be limitations from the state of Florida,” the governor said in a news conference.

Additionally, the governor suspended any outstanding fines and penalties for pandemic-related mandates, like mask requirements.

But cities, counties and states that have managed to bring their Covid-19 cases down should now work to prevent “surges that inevitably will occur if you’re not doing the kinds of public health measures that we’re talking about,” according to Fauci.

Those measures include what experts have for months vouched for: face coverings, hand-washing and avoiding crowds.

About 12 states are now seeing mask usage rates above 50%, according to researchers from the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME). Those include California, Colorado, Florida, Maryland, Mississippi, New Jersey, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia, Washington and West Virginia.

“If we listen to the public health measures, not only would we diminish the effect of Covid-19, we might get away with a very, very light flu season if we combine that with getting the flu vaccine,” Fauci said.

The continued spread of the coronavirus is driven by young people, Fauci reiterated.

“I don’t want to seem preachy about it,” he told New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy during a livestream Thursday on Facebook. “But right now, the infections in the country are driven more by young people, 19 to 25.”

“We are all in this together. And we’re going to end it together. And when we end it, then you can get back to your normal life. But you got to end it first,” he said.

Skepticism of Covid-19 vaccine an ‘enormous’ problem

While vaccines for Covid-19 are being tested, the growing skepticism around them is becoming an “enormous” problem, according to Dr. William Schaffner, a professor of infectious diseases at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

It’s a problem, Schaffner says, “because once we do develop a vaccine, obviously we want people to accept it, but there’s growing skepticism … in the general population.”

Fauci said Thursday he would back scientists at the FDA on whatever their decision is regarding approving a Covid-19 vaccine or giving it an emergency use authorization.

“These are respected, trained people who are much better at models and statistics and all that other stuff than any of us are,” he said during an online conversation with CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta organized by Emory University.

“If they look at it and say, ‘We really feel strongly we should go this way,’ I would back the scientists. I would have to do that, as a scientist, and I would express that.”