‘The virus is winning.’ Coronavirus deaths top 250,000 in US

Coronavirus has killed more than 250,000 people in the United States, just days after COVID-19 cases in the U.S. topped 10 million, Johns Hopkins University reports.

There have been 56 million confirmed cases of the COVID-19 virus worldwide, with more than 1.3 million deaths, according to the university. More than 166,000 people have died in Brazil, and more than 130,000 in India.

The United States has had more than 11 million confirmed cases as of Nov 18, and more than 165 million people in the U.S. have been tested for the COVID-19 virus, Johns Hopkins University reported.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that the 2019-20 seasonal flu killed from 24,000 to 62,000 people nationally. A 2009 swine flu pandemic killed more than 12,000 people in the United States.

“We are in a war right now and the virus is winning,” said Gov. Larry Hogan of Maryland, a Republican, on Tuesday as he announced new restrictions to curb the spread of the virus, the Washington Post reported.

“This is not the flu,” Hogan said, according to the publication. “This is not fake news. This is not going to magically disappear.”

“Right now, the pandemic in Iowa is worse than it has ever been,” said Gov. Kim Reynolds on Monday, also announcing new restrictions in her state. Reynolds warned that hospitals and other health care facilities risk being overrun by COVID-19 patients.

“If our healthcare system exceeds capacity, it’s not just COVID-19 we’ll be fighting,” Reynolds said. “Every Iowan who needs medical care will be put at risk.”

Numerous other states across the nation also are imposing or considering heightened restrictions to try to fight the pandemic.

Admiral Brett Giroir of the White House coronavirus task force said the U.S. faces “the worst rate of rise in cases that we’ve seen,” ABC News reported. He said it’s important to take precautions even while new vaccines are in the works.

“If we do not do that, we will lose tens of thousands of Americans by the time the vaccine is out and widely distributed,” Girolt said, according to the network.

Drugmakers Pfizer and Moderna have announced COVID-19 vaccines that are 95% effective, and experts say the inoculations could be available across the US by April, according to NPR.

But Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s foremost infectious disease expert, warned that vaccines are “not going to do it alone,” NPR reported.

“That’s the important point,” Fauci said, according to the network “This should not be a signal to pull back on the public health measures that we must continue to implement.”

The coronavirus outbreak began in December in Wuhan, China, possibly after the virus passed to humans from bats and pangolins, an Asian scaly anteater, McClatchy News reported.

The disease COVID-19 is caused by a new type of coronavirus first seen in 2019. It comes from a family of viruses responsible for the common cold, SARS, MERS and other ailments.

The World Health Organization has declared coronavirus a global pandemic. In the United States, President Donald Trump has declared a national emergency.

This story was originally published November 18, 2020 at 5:38 PM with the headline "‘The virus is winning.’ Coronavirus deaths top 250,000 in US."