Global coronavirus cases have surpassed 200,000 Wednesday morning and more than 8,200 have lost their lives since a novel virus appeared in the Hubei province of China late last year.
According to a tally kept by Johns Hopkins University, more than 82,000 people have recovered from the virus.
As of 9 a.m. Wednesday, China tops the list with 81,102 cases, Italy has the second-highest number of cases with 31,506 and Iran comes next with 17,361.
All 50 states in the U.S. are now linked to the virus, with nearly 6,500 confirmed cases around the nation. West Virginia was the last state to report a coronavirus case Tuesday afternoon.
At least 100 people have died in the U.S., linked to the virus’s outbreak. Thirty of those individuals are linked to the Life Care Center in Kirkland, Wash., one of the first hotspots of community spread in the nation.
As test production ramps up around the nation, those numbers are expected to rise.
Experts say that at some point next year, the pandemic will officially drop its pandemic status, becoming endemic. While this is a milestone to acknowledge, it does not mean we're free of infections, illnesses, and deaths. Dr. Rajeev Fernando, infectious disease specialist, Beth Israel Hospital and fellow, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
Chicago-based Internist Dr. Vivek Cherian joined Wake Up With Cheddar to break down the unprecedented surge in U.S. COVID-19 as many prepare to celebrate the new year.
Dr. Soumi Eachempati, co-founder and CEO of Cleared4 and former professor of surgery and public health at Weill Cornell Medical College, joined Cheddar to breakdown what people should know about the recently FDA-approved emergency use of Merck and Pfizer's COVID-19 treatment pills. He noted that not only do people need to be aware of other medications they are taking that could cause adverse effects if coupled with COVID-19 pill treatments, he also talked about the intense in-take regiment. "The Merck pills are actually about 40 pills over five days. The Pfizer ones are three pills over five days, so people have to be prepared for that because it is a lot of pills you'll have to take to get full value from these drugs," Eachempati told Cheddar.
Twitter is exploding with a new meme after the CDC revised its Covid-19 guidelines, shortening the recommended isolation period to five days instead of 10 for when you test positive and are asymptomatic. The change came amid a skyrocketing surge of new cases is the U.S. due to the Omicron variant, drawing criticism from experts and Twitter --with users claiming the government agency is giving funny advise on a variety of issues. But what does the meme say about the public’s trust in the agency? Cheddar News speaks with political strategist Hastie Afkhami.
The list of questions should be getting shorter as we enter the pandemic's third year, but that isn't the case. There's another question to add to that list: is the U.S. doing enough to track the virus and its variants? Lawrence Gostin, faculty director of the O'Neill Institute for national and global health law at Georgetown University, joins Cheddar News.
As we prepare to ring in the new year, COVID cases are hitting an all-time high. Dr. Anthony Fauci has said the safest way to celebrate would be a small gathering with vaccinated family members only... far from the large, flashy parties from a few years ago. Dr. Christina Johns, senior medical advisor at PM Pediatrics, joins Cheddar News to discuss how to celebrate safely.
