The United States surpassed 170,000 coronavirus deaths on Sunday, according to a tally kept by Johns Hopkins University as health officials express concerns over COVID-19 complicating the fall flu season.
Deaths rose by 483 on Sunday, with Florida, Texas and Louisiana, leading the rise in fatalities.
The United States has at least 5.4 million confirmed cases in total of the novel coronavirus, the highest in the world and likely an undercount as the country still has not ramped up testing to the recommended levels.
Public health officials and authorities are concerned about a possible fall resurgence in cases amid the start of the flu season, which will likely exacerbate efforts to treat the coronavirus.
The US is the hardest-hit country in the world.
Centers for Disease Control Director Robert Redfield warned the United States may be in for its ‘worst fall’ if the public does not follow health guidelines.
Months into the pandemic, the U.S. economic recovery from the recession triggered by the outbreak is still staggered, with some hot spots slowing their reopenings and others shutting down businesses.
The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation is anticipating an uptick in COVID-19 cases in the coming months, resulting in around 300,000 total deaths by December, and a nearly 75% increase in hospitalizations.
The model predicts the death toll could hit 185,000 by September.
Worldwide there are at least 21.5 million coronavirus cases and over 765,000 confirmed deaths.
The United States remains the global epicenter of the virus, with around a quarter of the cases and deaths.
The U.S. added nearly 50,000 new cases of infection on Saturday, bringing its overall tally to 5.38 million, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
Out of more than 772,000 deaths associated with the virus worldwide, about a fifth of them occurred in the U.S., the data showed.
The CDC also notes that that the number and rate of cases in children in the U.S. has been steadily increasing from March to July.
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill will shift all of its classes online, starting Wednesday, as the number of coronavirus cases on campus continues to grow, Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz told students and faculty today.
Four clusters – five or more cases – of the virus have been reported at three UNC-Chapel Hill residence halls and a fraternity since Friday.
According to UNC-Chapel Hill data, 130 students and five employees tested positive for the virus between Aug. 10 and Sunday, and the 13.6 percent positive rate was the highest in weeks.
Some students are being housed in area hotels because there isn’t enough isolation or quarantine space available on campus, Guskiewicz said.
“[W]e expect the majority of our current undergraduate residential students to change their residential plans for the fall,” he said. “We are working to identify additional effective ways to further achieve de-densification of our residential halls and our campus facilities. We will, again, open the opportunity for fall 2020 residence hall cancellation requests with no penalty.”
Twenty-three members of a sorority house at Oklahoma State University have tested positive for COVID-19.
This doubles the number of OSU students who were confirmed to have COVID-19.
The university conducted mandatory COVID-19 tests on all students before they moved into their residence halls and found 22 had the virus.
Last month, 45 coronavirus cases at the University of Southern California were linked to three fraternities associated with the school and more than 100 students living in fraternity houses near the University of Washington campus reported testing positive for COVID-19.