What A New York Doctor Is Seeing During The Third Wave Of COVID-19

WAMU 88.5 | By Avery Kleinman

Published October 22, 2020 at 7:39 AM CDT

A display at Grand Central Terminal shows how to wear a face mask on October 21, 2020 in New York City. Recent data from John Hopkins University shows that the U.S. recorded 60,315 positive COVID-19 cases across the United States on Tuesday. The U.S. has recorded at least 220,000 COVID-19 deaths, the highest death toll in the world.

Hospitals across the country are bearing the load of surging coronavirus cases. Over 220,000 Americans have died due to the virus. Many doctors and experts have long warned about the danger of a third wave of COVID-19.

From Vox:

As of October 20, the seven-day average of coronavirus cases was more than 60,000 — a new peak since the summer surge of Covid-19 abated. That's up from a recent low in the seven-day average of fewer than 35,000 cases on September 12. The increase doesn't appear to be driven by a single state or region — although the Dakotas, Montana, and Wisconsin appear to be in particularly bad shape — but rather spikes across much of the country at once, with increases reported across the Northeast, Midwest, South, and West. (Some of the spike is also caused by more testing exposing more cases.)

Unlike the summer's surge of coronavirus, the US isn't alone in its latest wave — cases are rising in much of Europe, too. Still, that doesn't mean this was inevitable: With aggressive measures, developed nations like Canada, Germany, and especially Australia, Japan, New Zealand, and South Korea have kept their Covid-19 caseloads much lower than America's or Europe's as a whole.

What's different about the third wave of COVID-19? We're getting a view from a doctor on the ground.