US sets record for COVID-19 cases amid election battle over virus

America set another record for daily confirmed coronavirus cases as states around the united states posted all-time highs, underscoring the vexing issue that confronts the winner of the presidential race.

The surging cases and hospitalisations reflect the task that either President Donald Trump or former Vice President Joe Biden will face in the coming months over the pandemic, with winter and the holiday season approaching.

Public health specialists fear potentially dire consequences, at least for a while.

Trump’s current term will not end until Jan 20. In the 86 days until then, 100,000 more Americans will probably die from the virus if the nation does not shift course, said Dr Robert Murphy, executive director of the Institute for Global Health at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine, echoing estimates from other public health experts.

Daily new confirmed coronavirus cases in america have surged 45 per cent over the past two weeks, to an archive seven-day average of 86,352, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Deaths are also increasing, up 15 per cent to an average of 846 deaths each day. The full total US death toll has already been a lot more than 232,000, and total confirmed US cases have surpassed 9 million. Those will be the highest totals on the globe, and new infections are increasing in almost every state.

Several states on Wednesday reported grim numbers that are fuelling the national trends. Texas reported 9,048 new cases and 126 deaths, and the number of coronavirus patients in Missouri, Nebraska and Oklahoma hospitals also set records. About a third of the brand new cases in Texas happened in hard-hit El Paso, in which a top health officials said hospitals are at a "breaking point".

"Where we are is within an extremely dire place as a country. Every metric that people have is trending in the wrong direction. That is a virus which will continue steadily to escalate at an accelerated speed and that's not going to stop alone," said Dr Leana Wen, a public health expert at George Washington University.

Dr Susan Bailey, president of the American Medical Association, said there are things Americans can do now to help change the trajectory.

"Whatever the outcome of the election, everyone in the us needs to buckle down," Bailey said.

"Most of us have gotten kind of relaxed about physically distancing, not washing our hands quite normally as we used to, maybe not wearing our masks quite as faithfully. Most of us have to realise that things are escalating and we have to be more careful than ever before," she said.

Polls showed the public health crisis and the economy were top concerns for most Americans.

They are competing conditions that Trump and Biden view through drastically different lenses.

Trump has ignored the advice of his top health advisers, who've issued increasingly urgent warnings in recent days about the necessity for preventive measures, instead holding rallies where face coverings were rare and falsely suggesting that the pandemic is waning.

By contrast, Biden has rarely been observed in public with out a mask and made public health an integral issue. Whether his voice will carry much influence if Trump is declared the winner is uncertain.

"President Trump has already made clear what his strategy is for COVID-19, which is to pretend that there is not really a contagious virus all over," Wen said. Trump has been touting treatments and vaccines, that will not be accessible to all or any Americans until at least mid-2021, she noted.

"There's lots of suffering that will happen before then, which could have already been prevented," Wen said.

Federal health officials have said they believe a vaccine could easily get emergency use authorisation prior to the end of the entire year. The first limited supplies of doses would then be immediately distributed to the most vulnerable populations, which will probably include frontline health care workers. Doses would then gradually become more accessible.

The timeline depends on having a vaccine that's shown to be effective and safe, which experts note isn't yet a certainty. "The vaccine must move at the speed of science," said Dr Joshua Sharfstein, vice dean for public health practice at Johns Hopkins University and former Maryland state health department chief.

On the procedure front, the makers of two experimental antibody drugs have asked the meals and Drug Administration to permit emergency usage of them for folks with mild to moderate COVID-19, and Trump, who received one when he was sickened last month, has said he wanted them available right away.

Up to now, the FDA has granted full approval to only one drug - the antiviral remdesivir - for hospitalised patients. Dexamethasone or similar steroids are recommended for certain severely ill patients under federal treatment guidelines.

The federal government continues to sponsor many reports testing other treatments alone and in combo with remdesivir.

However the development of treatments could possibly be afflicted if Trump makes good on threats to fire Dr Anthony Fauci, the government's top infectious disease doctor, or other top health officials Trump has clashed with.

Most Americans support mandating mask-wearing in public areas and think stopping the virus from spreading is a higher priority than protecting the economy, according to AP VoteCast, a nationwide survey of over 133,000 voters and nonvoters conducted for the Associated Press by NORC at the University of Chicago.

While several Europe have imposed or proposed new lockdowns and other restrictions to regulate surging cases, Trump has resisted those approaches and has centered on rebuilding the economy.

Absent a national pandemic strategy, curbing virus spread in america will rely upon more Americans taking necessary precautions and the upcoming holidays will make that a challenge, said Dr Cedric Dark, a crisis physician in Houston.

"It will likely be Thanksgiving, winter break for school students, The holiday season and Hannukah," but families may need to resist close get-togethers this season, he said. Outbreaks on college campuses mean many students may be bringing the virus home and spreading it to parents and grandparents, he said.

Dark, who hasn't seen his parents in over a year, has already established to change his own holiday plans. This season, Thanksgiving will maintain his parents' garage, with the entranceway up, chairs at least 6ft apart, and an area heater if needed.

"We are able to at least see one another, from a distance," Dark said.