The United States posted its highest-average number of cases over a seven-day span since August on Saturday, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, signalling the mounting challenge for the country as it heads into what’s expected to be a difficult flu season.
Saturday saw 49,871 new cases of the coronavirus and a seven-day moving average of 44,307, the latter at its highest level since August 21, according to the CDC.
The daily cases are a very slight decline from Friday’s 50,584, which was the worst since August 15.
Thirty-seven states experienced increases in cases over the past two weeks, according to data compiled by CovidExitStrategy.org, with Colorado, Montana, Texas, Utah and Wyoming seeing trends above 100%.
A surge in cases in the summer was driven in part by younger people, according to a September 23 report from the CDC, and the fall may continue the trend as schools and colleges report outbreaks, including in New York City where its health department is warning it may close some private schools if they’re not compliant with safety precautions.
The increases portend more deaths this fall, with the influential model from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington currently predicting 371,509 deaths by January 1, 2021.