by Michael Snyder
The Economic Collapse Blog
Everyone that tried to tell us that this pandemic would fade away quickly has been proven dead wrong. Right now, approximately 187 million Americans are under “shelter-in-place” orders as COVID-19 sweeps across the nation like wildfire. There are now more than 43,000 confirmed cases in the U.S., but by the time many of you read this article that number is likely to be far higher. But what is even more concerning is what we are seeing with the cases that have come to a final resolution one way or the other. Of all U.S. cases that have been officially resolved, 553 patients have died and only 295 patients have recovered. Over time, the number of patients that have officially recovered will eventually surpass the number that have died for a couple of reasons. For one, some victims are dying in just a few days while it can take weeks for some patients to fully recover. Secondly, more widespread testing will start to reveal more mild cases, and most of those mild cases will ultimately recover. But without a doubt it is starting to appear that the U.S. will have a very high death rate like we are seeing in Italy, Spain and other western European nations. Monday was the very first time that more than 100 Americans died in a single day, and it looks like the days ahead could be much, much worse.