Based on the latest figures from the World Health Organization, long-term care providers may continue to confront an uptick in positive cases of the 2019 novel coronavirus.
There are now more than 44,100 cases in the country, along with 544 deaths, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC also reported this week that about 150 nursing homes across the country have at least one resident with COVID-19.
The organization reported Tuesday that it’s seeing a “very large acceleration” in cases in the United States. Over a 24-hour time period earlier this week, WHO reported that 85% of new cases have been in the United States and Europe — with 40% of those being from the U.S. alone.
WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris said the latest figures show that the U.S. “does have that potential” to become the new epicenter of the disease.
“We cannot say that is the case yet but it does have that potential,” Harris told reporters Tuesday. “They [the United States] have a very large outbreak and an outbreak that is increasing in intensity.”
WHO officially declared the coronavirus as a pandemic in mid-March after the number of cases surpassed 118,000 worldwide. Since then, the number of positive cases has sharply risen.
“It took 67 days from the first reported case to reach the first 100,000 cases, 11 days for the second 100,000, and just four days for the third 100,000,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Monday.
