Officials are pleading with Americans to stay at home and redouble efforts to curtail the coronavirus pandemic, defending unpopular public health measures as record hospitalisations pushed medical professionals to the brink.
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"We are on fire with COVID," Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear said on CNN on Tuesday, speaking in support of restrictions imposed last week that included new constraints on retail activity and school closures. "We're just trying to do the right thing."
The number of patients being treated for coronavirus infections in US hospitals surpassed 86,000 on Tuesday, a record high, while 30 of the 50 states reported a record number of COVID-19-related hospitalisations this month.
The soaring caseload has taxed already exhausted healthcare providers and further strained medical resources as 171,000 Americans test positive and another 1500 or more perish from COVID-19 every day, on average.
US Surgeon-General Jerome Adams urged the public to grasp "the severity of the moment" and remain diligent in wearing face coverings, avoiding crowds and practicing good hand hygiene until newly developed therapeutic treatments and vaccines can be made widely available in the months ahead.
"We just need you, the American people, to hold on a little bit longer," Adams, a White House coronavirus task force member, told Fox News in an interview.
Adams joined a chorus of health authorities calling for people to reconsider any plans to travel or to congregate in large groups beyond their immediate households over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend starting Thursday.
Although fewer in number than is typical, millions of Americans have flocked to airports and highways in recent days, leading to the busiest US travel period since the early days of the pandemic in March.
After an initial wave of infections centred in and around major US cities during the spring, the COVID-19 pandemic now has engulfed rural and small-town America.
Infection rates in a dozen midwestern states have more than doubled those of any other region, according to the COVID Tracking Project, soaring 20 times higher from mid-June to mid-November.
Australian Associated Press