New US COVID-19 cases rise in 27 states; total fatalities surpass 205,000

With the number of COVID-19 cases and deaths from the virus surging in the United States, the country’s total fatalities have surpassed 205,000.

The world’s worst hit country in terms of both infections and deaths has also so far registered more than 7.1 million cases of the novel coronavirus.

According to a Reuters analysis, the number of new COVID-19 cases in the US has risen for two weeks in a row in 27 out of 50 states.

Last week, North Carolina and New Mexico reported increases above 55 percent. Texas also reported a 60 percent jump in new cases, though that included a backlog of several thousand cases.

The surge in infections comes as top US infectious diseases expert Doctor Anthony Fauci, said the county was “not in a good place.”

"There are states that are starting to show (an) uptick in cases and even some increases in hospitalizations in some states. And, I hope not, but we very well might start seeing increases in deaths," he said.

‘Nearly 280,000 US schoolchildren have had coronavirus’

Meanwhile, a report published by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), elaborates that almost 280,000 school aged children were infected with the virus between March first and September nineteenth.

Children aged 12-17 are approximately twice as likely to be infected as those aged 5-11. The rate of new cases rose during the spring and then shot up over the summer.

The new cases declined in late August but they are now rising again towards summer levels.

The authors wrote that the data helped establish a baseline for monitoring trends of COVID-19 infection.

"School studies suggest that in-person learning can be safe in communities with low SARS-CoV-2 transmission rates, but might increase transmission risk in communities where transmission is already high," they said.

Hispanic and Black minority groups are at heightened risk of developing severe COVID-19, as are children with underlying conditions, the report said.

A total of 277,285 children were infected, 3,240 hospitalized (or 1.2 percent); 404 admitted to intensive care (0.1 percent); and 51 died (0.01 percent).

‘New adviser giving Trump bad information on virus’

According to media reports on Monday, Dr. Fauci said that new White House adviser Scott Atlas is providing misleading information on the COVID-19 pandemic to President Donald Trump.

Fauci told CNN that he was concerned that information given by Atlas was "really taken either out of context or actually incorrect."

Meanwhile, Robert Redfield, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, also shared similar concerns.

"Everything he says is false," Redfield reportedly said during a Friday telephone call while on a plane from Atlanta to Washington, according to NBC.

Atlas, who is a neuroradiologist with no background in infectious diseases, has downplayed the importance of face masks and pushed on the theory of "herd immunity," an approach that holds that once enough individuals have been infected and become immune, others are less likely to be infected.

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