The number of people in the United States who have been infected with the coronavirus is likely to be 10 times as high as the 2.3 million confirmed cases, based on antibody tests, the head of US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday.
CDC Director Robert Redfield's estimate, shared with reporters in a conference call, indicates that at least 23 million Americans have been infected so far.
▲ Photo by AP
The antibody tests examine a person's blood for indicators that the immune system has mounted a response to an infection. The serological surveys are being done around the country as epidemiologists try to measure the reach of the virus to date. Redfield said he believes 5 to 8 percent of the population has been infected so far.The estimation comes amid rises in cases across the Southeast and Western US, particularly among younger adults in their 20s, 30s and 40s.Also Thursday, the CDC expanded its list of who is at greatest risk for COVID-19 complications, removing the age cutoff of 65.
▲ Photo by Reuters
Larry Kudlow, the White House's top economic official, said during an appearance on Fox Business Network that the administration does not anticipate a second wave of infections, which has been projected by health experts, and that new hot spots popping up across the country are scenarios Americans will "just have to live with".
Some officials in the Trump administration, including the president, argue the surging cases simply reflect expanded testing. But infectious-disease experts, including Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, dispute that, saying they also reflect increased community transmission.
Redfield said that younger people are the leading edge of that transmission. "Young people, many newly mobile after months of lockdowns, have been getting tested more often in recent weeks and driving the surge in cases in the South and West," he said.
"In the past, I just don't think we diagnosed these infections," he said.
Source: Washington Post, NBC News
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