Transcript
A team of researchers reported in the journal Science Translation Medicine that as many as 8.7 million Americans came down with coronavirus in March.
But more than 80 percent of them were never diagnosed.
The researchers looked at the number of people who went to doctors or clinics with influenza-like illnesses that were never diagnosed with coronavirus, influenza or any other viruses that usually circulate in winter.
There was a giant spike in these cases in March, the researchers reported in the journal.
Only 100-thousand cases were officially reported during that time period and the US still reports only 2.3 million cases as of Monday.
But there was a shortage of testing kits at the time.
Meanwhile as we move into summer the number of cases is increasing in many states.
And health officials fear we are moving backwards instead of forward.
23 states are seeing week-to-week increases in new cases and that upward trend is expected to continue.
Ten states saw their highest seven-day average of new infections, including Florida, Georgia and California.
The new hotspots are in the South and the West including in Arizona where President Trump is scheduled to appear Tuesday.
In some areas the pandemic appears to have shifted toward younger Americans.
And experts warn that even though healthy young people are less likely to get ill or die from the virus, they can spread the virus to people who are at risk like the elderly or those with underlying health conditions.
According to Johns Hopkins University, there have been more than 120-thousand deaths in the US.
Posted – 6.23.20