According to the John Hopkins University’s Coronavirus Resource Center, at the time of this writing, over 3 Million people have been diagnosed with COVID-19 around the world, with over a million reported cases in the U.S. alone. The widespread illness has claimed the lives of over 200,000 people globally, including more than 58,000 deaths in the U.S.
The CDC has expanded the official list of symptoms of COVID-19 on its website.
Previously listed symptoms include fever, cough, and shortness of breath or difficulty breathing, while newly added possible indicators are (1) chills, (2) repeated shaking with chills, (3) muscle pain, (3) headache, (4) sore throat and (5) a sudden loss of taste or smell, or a combination. Per the website, “People with these symptoms or combinations of symptoms may have COVID-19.”
Dr. Mike Ryan, executive director of WHO’s emergencies program, has also expressed how the U.S. faces a “very difficult situation” when it comes to dealing with the spread of coronavirus.
“I think that the United States has been dealing for a while with a complex situation,” he said. “It’s a very large country, 50 states, each one with different populations, with different levels of urbanization and the epidemic at different levels of development and evolution in each of those.”
The White House recently unveiled a three-phase plan for “Opening Up America Again,” which identifies the circumstances necessary for areas of the country to allow employees to start returning to work. The federal guidelines does not offer specific dates for states to “reopen” their economies and the decision to lift restrictions is still up to the state governors.
“The federal government and the system of governors are working together to move America and its people through this very difficult situation with public health and other scientific leaders adding and inputting their advice into the system,” Dr. Ryan said. “We believe that the overarching federal plan seems to be very much based on science.”
Some states, including Alaska, Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, have announced plans to partially lift restrictions put in place amid the coronavirus pandemic, while some like New York and parts of California, have extended containment measures.
However, Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease and White House health advisor, warns that the U.S. “could be in for a bad fall” if an effective treatment for the coronavirus could not be found by then.
In an interview with The Economic Club of Washington, D.C., Dr. Fauci expressed that prematurely reopening businesses could cause “a rebound to get us right back in the same boat that we were in a few weeks ago.”
Covid-19 is “not going to disappear from the planet,” he said, adding, “In my mind, it’s inevitable that we will have a return of the virus, or maybe even that it never went away,” he said.
World Health Organization Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus also said at a recent news conference that “the pandemic is far from over,” as the WHO expresses continued concerns about the “increasing trends in Africa, Eastern Europe, Latin America and some Asian countries.”
“As in all regions, cases and deaths are underreported in many countries in these regions, because of low testing capacity,” Dr. Ghebreyesus said, adding, “This virus will not be defeated if we are not united, if we are not united, the virus will exploit the cracks between us and continue to create havoc. Lives will be lost.”
