CDC Chief Says US Coronavirus Cases May Be 10 Times Higher Than Reported

Robert Redfield, the chief of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said that the number of people in the United States who have been infected with the novel coronavirus is likely to be 10 times more than the actual 2.4 million confirmed cases, based on antibody tests. He pointed out that at least 24 million Americans would have been infected with coronavirus so far.

He further added that the serological survey is being performed across the country and he believes that 5 to 8 percent of the population has been infected with coronavirus to date. Robert also stressed that the case count continues to increase to record levels in many states particularly in the South and West, during warm-weather months that most of the people had hoped that the pandemic would decrease.

On Friday, more than 40,000 fresh cases have been reported for the third time. Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Idaho, Washington, and Utah have set their own records for the average number of COVID-19 infections reported over the last seven days.

A total of 44,702 new infections were reported by state health departments on Friday, crossing the previous record, 39,327, set a day earlier. Texas reported 5,707 fresh cases on Friday and for the straight fourth day, the state has reported more than 5,000 cases.

According to the Johns Hopkins University, there are 2,418,570 coronavirus cases in the US. A total of 124,355 people have died due to the infection. US continued to be one of the worst-hit countries and has the highest number of coronavirus cases and fatalities.