This month, we have seen quite the rise in COVID-19 cases across the country. This table provided by npr.org, demonstrates the rates of positivity increasing.  From last week to this week, 47 out of 50 U.S. States received an increase in positive test cases.

On our UHart COVID-19 Dashboard, 18 members of our campus community tested positive last week (11/9-11/15).

With more than 11 million confirmed cases and over 245,000 deaths, the US has the highest number of infections in the world and we have been reaching record numbers in outbreaks. “We’re in for a whole lot of hurt. It’s not a good situation,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, the country’s leading infectious-disease expert, said in his predictions during an October interview, “All the stars are aligned in the wrong place as you go into the fall and winter season, with people congregating at home indoors. You could not possibly be positioned more poorly.”

Some areas across the country have imposed new restrictions, including Philadelphia Pennsylvania, Chicago Illinois, the states of California and New York, and many more. “We are serious about it, we have been serious,” Jim Kenney, the Philadelphia Mayor, told a representative at MNBC. “We have slipped back a little bit, we got people not wearing masks as much as they should. We are in the 70 percent, but we should be in the 90s, so we really have to bear down now and get through this long dark corner.”

As we head into the holiday season and the colder months, please keep doing what you are doing to prevent the spread of disease. Keep your gatherings to a small quantity and distanced. Wear your masks wherever you go. When you go home, wash your hands or sanitize them with an alcohol-based hand sanitizer. The virus spread has the potential of getting much worse in the coming months, and we must do our part like we did in Spring 2020 when this pandemic began. With all of our efforts, we can stop the spread of disease.

“We understand that people are sick and tired, but death is real, and it is on the horizon for us if we don’t dig down and do more,” Lori Lightfoot, the mayor of Chicago, said on MSNBC’s talk show, Morning Joe. “So we are urging people to stay home, to not be in large crowds, to wear face coverings, and really take responsibility for their own lives.”

With the collective efforts of the country, we can prevent the spread of disease if we all do our part this upcoming Winter.