COVID-19 cases top 1 million globally

COVID-19 cases top 1 million globally

More than 6,000 Americans have died from the COVID-19 pandemic, as the country and world continue to surpass more somber milestones.

For the first time Wednesday, more than 1,000 Americans died in a single day, breaking a record for the most COVID-19 deaths any country has experienced in a 24-hour period. More than 54,000 worldwide have lost their lives to the disease, and there are now more than 1 million cases across the globe, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center.

“The exponential curve that we’re all so familiar with now – we have to figure out a way to bend that curve to prevent our health care system from breaking and to save lives,” said Dr. Robert Citronberg, director of infectious disease at Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge, IL.

“Social distancing works,” he said. “We know how the virus spreads. You have to be basically within six feet of someone to catch it.” He also stressed the importance of hand-washing and cleaning surfaces frequently.

Dr. Citronberg emphasized while social distancing starts working from the first day that you do it, it can take about two weeks before you see results. He pointed to encouraging news from the Bay Area in California about two weeks after they started sheltering in place and social distancing, saying they’d already seen “a flattening of the curve.”

At least 38 states have put in place some form of stay-at-home order as of Thursday, meaning about 300 million U.S. citizens are under a state or city order to hunker down.

Nonetheless, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s foremost coronavirus expert told CNN’s Anderson Cooper he doesn’t understand why every state hasn’t issued stay-at-home orders.

“You really got to take it seriously,” he stressed.

Learn what to do if you think you’ve been exposed to COVID-19. 

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One Comment

  1. I think that if people start buying online and picking up less people in stores and better for the workers

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About the Author

Adam Mesirow
Adam Mesirow

Adam Mesirow, health enews managing editor, is media relations director of Advocate Health Care and Aurora Health Care. Securing high-profile media placements for more than a decade, he loves to tell a good story. Adam earned a Bachelor’s degree in Public Policy from the University of Michigan. He lives in Chicago and enjoys playing sports, reading TIME magazine and a little nonsense now and then.