WASHINGTON, Oct 26 (NNN-AGENCIES) — As the US reports its second-highest day of new Covid-19 cases amid the continuing fall surge, a former commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration says it may be time for a national mask mandate.
In an op-ed for The Wall Street Journal, Dr. Scott Gottlieb wrote the mandate could be “limited and temporary.”
“A mandate can be expressly limited to the next two months,” Gottlieb wrote, adding that it’s easier to wear a mask in the winter than the summer.
If 95% of Americans wore masks in public, more than 100,000 lives could be saved in the United States through February, according to data released by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington.
“If people are not wearing masks, then maybe we should be mandating it,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said.
Citing data from local state health authorities, the Covid Tracking Project reported Saturday saw 83,718 new Covid-19 cases, just 39 cases shy of the all-time record that was reported Friday.
US Surgeon General Jerome Adams has warned that hospital admission numbers are growing, but mortality rates are falling due to better patient care.
According to the Covid Tracking Project, 8,889,179 million cases of coronavirus have been reported in America since the pandemic began.
The daily increase on Friday surpassed by more than 6,000 cases the tracking project’s previous record of 76,842 on 17 July.
Over the last week, the US has tallied 441,541 new infections – its largest seven-day increase since the end of July.
The number of people who’ve died (230,510) after contracting coronavirus has also steadily increased during the last six days, but is still significantly below the peak of over 2,000 daily deaths reported in April.
Hospital admission numbers are rising, too. As of Friday, 41,485 people were being treated in hospital, according to Covid Tracking Project data. This was the highest figure since the end of August, but it was also lower than figures reported in April and July.
America’s Midwest continues to be the hardest-hit region of the country, with cases soaring in states like North Dakota, Montana and Wisconsin.
In Ohio, a key battleground state for the upcoming presidential election, authorities recorded their worst daily case increase for a third day running.
Others in the region, including Illinois and Indiana, also saw daily rises near or at record highs on Friday.
Meanwhile, in the south-west cases reached an all-time high in Utah, where new mandatory mask rules have been introduced in 21 counties.
America’s coronavirus outbreak has become a key policy battleground ahead of the November election.
President Donald Trump and Joe Biden clashed over the subject during Thursday’s presidential debate, and the two candidates have continued to present starkly different views over the way ahead.
At a rally in Florida on Friday, President Trump promised supporters that the pandemic would end soon, and accused Biden of overstating the crisis to scare people into voting for him.
Meanwhile, while speaking at an event in Delaware, Biden said the president had given up on containing the virus.
The former vice-president said that, if elected, he would ask state governors to mandate the use of masks, put a national testing plan in place, and order the production of personal protective equipment.
Biden also pledged to make the Covid-19 vaccine free for every American if one is approved. A similar plan was unveiled by the federal government in September, as part of a White House initiative dubbed Operation Warp Speed. — NNN-AGENCIES
