
Coronavirus cases are truly up across the US and it’s not just because of more testing Admiral Brett Giroir, a member of the White House coronavirus task force, said Tuesday – directly contradicting President Trump.
“Testing may be identifying some more cases, I think that’s clearly true, but what we’re seeing is a real increase in the numbers,” Giroir said during a Washington Post live event on Tuesday.
In March and April, probably only one out of 10 or 15 cases were being detected, he said. Today can’t really be compared to that time period, “but compared to the post Memorial Day surge, even though testing is up, this is a real increase in cases,” he said.
Giroir said case numbers are up and also hospitalizations are also going up.
He said hospitals are filling up and coming under stress in some parts of the country, but the number of people in the hospital with coronavirus is still lower than it was in July.
“We really have a mixed picture, but we are tenuous now. We really have to re-engage the public health measures that we know work, or those hospitalizations can go up substantially,” Giroir said.
One good thing is that a lot more young people are getting the virus compared to older people, which is one reason why hospitalizations are shorter, Giroir said. Also, there are some effective therapies.