Shifts: According to the latest figures released by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the US has officially recorded over 100 million Covid-19 cases. According to data updated on Wednesday from the CDC, the country totaled 100,216,983 confirmed Covid-19 cases as of December 21. The US is the first country to record 100 million COVID-19 cases worldwide, reports Xinhua news agency.
Experts said the real number is much higher because people testing at home don’t send their results to public health departments, and many people don’t get tested anymore. CDC data shows that more than 1.08 million people in the US had died of COVID-19 since the pandemic began.
Dr. John Brownstein, epidemiologist and chief innovation officer at Boston Children’s Hospital, told ABC News that the 100 million figure is significant, but it’s also a serious undercount.
“Obviously this is a milestone that reflects the enormous amount of transmission that is happening around this virus and the population burden that we have faced,” he said. “At the same time, we believe that the reported cases are an absolute massive undercount – at the start of the pandemic where testing was non-existent thanks to changes to home testing where a significant proportion of cases have gone unreported. ”
The reasons for underreported cases could be many, including people testing at home and not reporting their results to public health officials, not knowing where to get tested, or people choosing not to test at all.
Meanwhile, the United States (US) will require all visitors to China to present a negative COVID-19 test result before boarding a flight to the country, CNN reported on Wednesday.
Through the telehealth service, the test can be either a PCR test or an antigen self-test. Travelers traveling from China to the US will need to get tested two days before their flight and provide their airline documentation of a negative result before boarding, CNN reported, citing federal health officials.
Both travelers flying directly from China to the United States and travelers passing through well-known third country gateways such as Seoul, Toronto and Vancouver will be subject to the rule. In place of a negative test result, those who test positive 10 days prior to their travel will be asked to submit proof of their recovery. The new rules will go into effect on January 5th at 12:01AM ET.
(with agency inputs)