Xinhua News Agency, Washington, November 26 (Reporter Tan Jingjing) November 26 is the traditional American holiday Thanksgiving. This is a holiday to reunite with your family. But Texas woman Bonnie Najella and her relatives have canceled all party plans during the festival.
“The novel coronavirus is too dangerous. Please don’t party! Don’t travel! These are the toughest times, don’t put your dearest one in danger!”
In a video posted on the Internet, Najra burst into tears. In just a few months, she lost six relatives, including her parents, due to the coronavirus epidemic.
A few days ago, she said in an interview with the U.S. media that she saw people still posting photos of various parties on social media. “When they left me a message saying that u2018 really sorry for you u2019, I want to ask rhetorically, really? Are you really sorry? You are still taking risks to party your close relatives, which is really a pity.
In the past Thanksgiving holidays, Americans usually returned home from other places to reunite with their families, eat turkey meals, travel together, and stage shopping carnivals on Black Friday. But this year everything is different due to the epidemic.
With the advent of autumn and winter, the epidemic that the United States has not controlled has accelerated again, and various epidemic indicators have continued to set new records. It took just six days for the number of confirmed cases to rise from 11 million to 12 million.
As of November 25th local time, the cumulative number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the United States has exceeded 12.75 million, and the cumulative number of deaths has exceeded 261,000.
This means that thousands of families in the United States have suffered the pain of losing their loved ones due to the epidemic this year.
On November 24, the total number of coronavirus hospitalizations in the United States exceeded 88,000, the highest number since the outbreak. The medical system in many places is overloaded, and the reception capacity is close to the limit. A large number of medical staff bear physical and psychological pressure.
“Overcrowded and without beds, I can only hospitalize a couple diagnosed with COVID-19 in their 80s. This is the first time they have separated in 62 years of marriage. Unfortunately, the old lady’s condition quickly worsened and died before Thanksgiving, leaving the old gentleman to endure great grief, loneliness and worsening illness and support him alone. Sherry Shea, a physician at Hennepin Medical Center in Minneapolis, cried.
What makes her more helpless and indignant is that many of the patients she receives are elderly and staff in nursing homes, front-line workers, and her own colleagues. They have not actually been to bars or parties, but are exposed to the current very severe coronavirus environment in the United States before being infected.
“I have been working continuously for 251 days since the epidemic. Nurses often cry because there are too many patients and this state is not visible at all. Joseph Veron, director of the United Memorial Medical Center in Houston, said.
He is concerned that the surge in patients before the introduction of the coronavirus vaccine will put the local health care system at risk of collapse. If the public does not follow social distancing, wearing masks and other epidemic prevention measures, the next 6 to 12 weeks may enter “the darkest stage in the history of modern American medicine”.
In the face of the epidemic, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and public health experts have urged people not to travel or gather to celebrate during the Thanksgiving holiday to reduce the risk of contracting and spreading the novel coronavirus.
“The last thing we want is to stack a more violent spike on top of the current surge in cases,” said Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a member of the White House Coronavirus Response Task Force.
On November 24, passengers wearing masks walked at Reagan National Airport in Arlington, Virginia. Xinhua News Agency (Photo by Shen Ting)
According to the data of the U.S. Transportation Security Administration, more than 3 million passengers passed the security check at all airports in the United States last weekend.
The American Automobile Association predicts that 50 million people will travel across the United States during Thanksgiving.
