Incoming CDC director predicts 500,000 Covid-19 deaths by mid-February [Video]

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

• President-elect Joe Biden’s pick as CDC director expects ” half a million deaths” in the US due to COVID-19 by mid-February.
• In an interview with “Face The Nation,” Rochelle Walensky confrimed that the pandemic is going to get worse.
• The coronavirus has killed almost 400,000 Americans in less than a year and has recorded nearly 4,000 deaths a day.

President-elect Joe Biden’s pick for CDC director said Sunday that she expects the country will record 500,000 COVID-19 deaths by mid-February.

In an interview with CBS News’ “Face The Nation,” Rochelle Walensky said she “unfortunately” agrees with outgoing CDC Director Robert Redfield that the pandemic is going to get worse.

Walensky said the U.S. has recorded almost 4,000 deaths a day and nearly 400,000 coronavirus deaths total in less than a year.

“By the middle of February we expect half a million deaths in this country,” she said.

The health official noted that the numbers do not account for the “tens of thousands” of Americans who recovered from the virus but have an “uncharacterized syndrome.” She added the nation has not yet seen “the ramifications of what happened from the holiday travel,” which she said will lead to “high rates of hospitalizations and deaths thereafter.”

“I think we still have some dark weeks ahead,” she grimly predicted.

According to data from Johns Hopkins University, there are more than 23.8 million COVID-19 cases in the US and 397,252 deaths.

The COVID Tracking Project reported that the death rate has increased significantly throughout the cooler months. The U.S. has recorded at least 3,6000 deaths per day between Jan. 12 and 16.

The Trump administration has faced backlash for its handling of the pandemic, including how less frequent it briefs the public. 

Walensky told “Face The Nation” moderator Margaret Brennan she will “brief as often as I can” and “as often as new information comes.”

“When there are new things to report, you will hear from somebody at the CDC and it may very well be me,” she said. 

Source: The Hill