Business Insider, by Yeji Jesse Lee: The US is headed for a nationwide coronavirus outbreak.
That’s according to recent data showing that cases of the COVID-19 virus are growing in clusters in cities across the US.
Researchers at the University of Chicago found clusters in states including Arkansas, Mississippi, Tennessee, Georgia, and South Carolina, places that have been widely overlooked compared to epicenters like New York City or Seattle.
The scientists at the Center for Spatial Data Science at the University of Chicago (CSDS) examined cases at the county level to find that there were significant clusters of the virus in cities across the country.
Nationwide, there have been over 140,000 COVID-19 cases, and states like New York, New Jersey, and California have topped the list with the most cases. Case counts are increasing in other places, ranging from New Orleans to Philadelphia to Albany, Georgia.
Morgan Stanley’s recent COVID-19 forecast released Monday said that the largest risk to the US is “a second wave of infections emanating from the central region of the country after the coasts have peaked in mid-April.”
This wave, the report continues, could delay the US “peak” and cause recontamination of the coastal cities even after they see cases decline.
Scott Gottlieb, the former US Food and Drug Administration commissioner who’s now a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, said on Twitter that the coronavirus was now a “national epidemic with multiple epicenters.”
Pointing to cities like New Orleans, Philadelphia, and Dallas, among others, Gottlieb said that cities nationwide are seeing reported cases double every three to four days.
In Philadelphia, which had 890 reported cases of COVID-19 as of Monday morning, hospitals are bracing for the worst to come as reported cases of the virus keep rising.
“We anticipate we are no more than two weeks behind New York City,” P.J. Brennan, chief medical officer of the massive University of Pennsylvania Health System, told The Philadelphia Inquirer. “Cases are doubling every two to three days. We had 46 confirmed cases last night. You do the math.”
And hospitals across the US are already facing massive pressures on hospital resources, or preparing for the possibility of it in the coming weeks.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, whose state has so far been hit the hardest by the coronavirus with over 60,000 reported cases, has resorted to suggesting that hospitals in the state split ventilators between two patients amid the current shortage of the machines.
Last week, New York-Presbyterian Hospital started to do just that, despite the risks involved.
“No state, no metro area will be spared,” White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator Deborah Birx told NBC News’ Chuck Todd on “Meet the Press” on Sunday. “We are asking every single governor and every single mayor to prepare like New York is preparing now.”
Our Comment:
As is being emphasized in this article, the coronavirus is growing in clusters around large cities. No wonder God has encouraged His people to not live in the cities, particularly in the last days!
Prophetic Link:
“The physical surroundings in the cities are often a peril to health. The constant liability to contact with disease, the prevalence of foul air, impure water, impure food, the crowded, dark, unhealthful dwellings, are some of the many evils to be met.
It was not God’s purpose that people should be crowded into cities, huddled together in terraces and tenements. In the beginning He placed our first parents amidst the beautiful sights and sounds He desires us to rejoice in today. The more nearly we come into harmony with God’s original plan, the more favorable will be our position to secure health of body, and mind, and soul.” The Ministry of Healing, page 365.