This week, the US reported over 2,000 daily deaths due to coronavirus for the first time since May, according to Johns Hopkins University figures. Meanwhile figures by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) show there were 165,282 new cases on the same day, bringing the US total to around 12,498,734.
Hospitalisations are also on the rise with records repeatedly set in recent days, according to the Covid Tracking Project.
Restrictions in the US vary across states and even between cities within those states.
Former president Barack Obama has called current president Donald Trump’s coronavirus handling “shambolic”.
The recent figures come as the US celebrates its annual Thanksgiving holiday, which can see families travelling across the country to gather together – with Christmas also not far off.
Experts are concerned that the combination of the two holidays could see cases further increase, with potentially dire consequences for health services.
Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, warned the US is “in a very dangerous place”.
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He said the country could face “yet another surge” on top of its current one, “which we’ll realise three and a half weeks from now,” he told ABC’s ‘Good Morning America’.
Other experts have weighed in, too. Dr Joseph Varon, chief of staff at the United Memorial Medical Center hospital in Houston, Texas, warned the US “is going to see the darkest days in modern American history”.
Dr Varon said his hospital is “full” and that two new wings had been opened up to treat patients over the Thanksgiving period.
He said “nurses in the middle of the day, they will start crying, because they are getting so many patients” in a CNN interview Wednesday.
Mr Trump is due to transfer the presidency to his rival Joe Biden in January next year.
Mr Biden says he has been working with senators to discuss ways in which his incoming administration will attempt to get the US epidemic under control.
While exact policies are unclear, the Biden campaign has published a ‘seven-point plan’ which provides some details.
These include doubling the number of drive-through testing sites in the US and providing “clear” national guidance restrictions.
In a Thanksgiving speech, Mr Biden said the US had “grown weary of the fight” against Covid-19.
However, he added: “We have to steel our spines, redouble our efforts and recommit ourselves to the fight.”