COVID-19 Cases In US May Be Ten Times Higher Than Official Figures - CDC

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), has said that the number of coronavirus cases in the United States is possibly 10 times higher than what is officially recorded.

This was disclosed by the head of the CDC, Dr. Robert Redfield, on Thursday, to reporters on a conference call, stating that at least 24 million Americans have been infected with the virus.

Over 2.4 million coronavirus cases have been recorded in the US, making it the worst-hit country globally, with fatalities totalling over 126,000.

The report from the CDC chief came at a time when the number of infected Americans, especially in the South and West, has increased during the warm weather which was expected to reduce the rate at which the disease spread.

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Hitherto, people tested for the disease were those whose symptoms were visible, but since the number of those infected without visible symptoms has grown, more tests have had to be conducted.

Redfield said,  “The traditional approach of looking for symptomatic illness, and diagnoses obviously underestimated the total number of infections.

“Now that serology tests are available, which test for antibodies, the estimates we have right now show about 10 times more people have antibodies in the jurisdictions tested than had documented infections.

“Our best estimate right now is that for every case that’s reported, there actually are 10 other infections.

"We probably recognized about 10% of the outbreak by the methods that we use to diagnosis between March, April and May.

“As we go into the fall, in the winter, these are going to be really, really important defence mechanisms.”

Governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, has considered putting back the lifting of restrictions in the state, as the cases in the state continue to see an upward stroke.

Abbott said, “The last thing we want to do as a state is going backward and close down businesses."

Experts say that a number of factors will determine whether an increase in the number of cases will mean an increase in the number of fatalities recorded in the country.