Before Biden inauguration, 70,000 more could die from Covid-19 in US

Washington - US states and cities announced a patchwork of new restrictions this week aimed at slowing the virus’s spread.

US President-elect Joe Biden has pledged to make controlling the coronavirus a top priority and is likely to push for mask wearing mandates and more fiscal stimulus to keep businesses and workers afloat.

But in the two months until inauguration day on Jan. 20, skyrocketing infections could add more than 8 million more cases and 70,000 deaths, representing a potential 80% increase in infections and a 29 per cent rise in deaths, according to Reuters calculations.

The only ways to change the outcome, experts said, are for President Donald Trump’s outgoing administration to alter its strategy or state governments to introduce stricter and more coordinated measures. Colder weather adds to the challenge.

“The epidemic is going to be worse than it was in the spring, and worse than it was for the everyday American,” said Gregg Gonsalves, a professor in epidemiology at Yale University and a health care activist.

Trump has shown less involvement in the White House coronavirus task force in recent weeks as he focused on his re-election campaign and an effort to challenge votes in several states after the Nov. 3 election.

Trump’s coronavirus task force has been superseded by a multitude of regional task forces, “which is probably the least efficient solution, but better than nothing,” said Greg Daco, chief economist from Oxford Economics.

US states and cities announced a patchwork of new restrictions this week aimed at slowing the virus’s spread.

A White House spokesman said the president’s task force remains “focused on saving lives,” and is “in constant contact with state and local jurisdictions and health care providers, and continues to promote common sense mitigation measures.”

Since an election night party indoors at the White House where guests were mostly unmasked, several top Trump allies, including chief of staff Mark Meadows, have tested positive for coronavirus.

Meanwhile, it is looking less likely that Congress will pass significant additional fiscal stimulus before Biden takes office.

Infectious disease experts say the U.S. federal government should be doing much more right now.

“We could be trying to figure out how to give people support to stay home” rather than go to work, said Gonsalves. “We could pay them to stay home, we could send out masks to every American household.”

Infections Jump

The first wave of the coronavirus in spring hit big coastal cities and nursing homes, and a second spread through more rural states.

The third wave is spreading virtually unchecked throughout much of the United States, which surpassed 10 million reported cases this week and more than 125,000 new cases on Wednesday.