The Christmas season begins with more than 100,000 new cases of covid-19 in the United States.

(CNN) – The United States enters a bad holiday weekend after Thanksgiving with more than 100,000 new cases of COVID-19 and 1,200 deaths, numbers that will skyrocket as 20 states reported no data.

The country surpassed 13 million cases this Friday.

The last days of November, which traditionally mark the beginning of a period of purchases and donations, have seen record peaks of the pandemic which continues to worsen. The numbers exceed previous rallies and show no signs of slowing down in the precarious winter months.

The United States marked the 24th consecutive day Thursday with more than 100,000 new cases. Admissions hit a new record, for the seventeenth consecutive day, with more than 90,400 covid-19 patients across the country. according to the Covid monitoring project.

The death toll in the country since the start of the pandemic is now over 263,000. And nearly 60,000 more people could lose their lives in the next three weeks, according to a forecast released this week by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The number of daily deaths is likely to double over the next 10 days, prolonging the sense of loss and isolation in a season traditionally spent with family and friends.

“So we’re going to see about 4,000 deaths a day, which is how another 60,000 deaths are achieved in just about 20 days,” said Dr. Jonathan Reiner, a professor of medicine at George Washington University on Wednesday.

Thanksgiving gatherings could fuel an already ferocious tide, officials warned, who urged Americans to avoid traveling and celebrating only with close family members. Many have heard the calls, according to a poll this week, but since last week millions have boarded planes across the country.

“In a week, more likely two weeks, we will see a rebound on a rebound,” said Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease professor at Vanderbilt University on Wednesday. “We are in a difficult time,” he added.

Statistics reported in the days following the holidays will likely show a relative decline in the number of covid-19 cases, followed by an increase. This reflects the delay of government agencies in reporting over the long weekend. And given the coronavirus incubation time and the time it takes a person to test positive, Thanksgiving cases are unlikely to show up in public data until the completion of the first week of December. minimum.

The projections for the next few weeks can be daunting, but it’s not too late to change course.

“If we all got together, put on masks and kept social distances, we could get around this curve in two or three weeks,” Schaffner said. “We would see reduced transmission even before we get to vaccines,” he added.

What it would take to change the course of covid-19 in the United States

While a potential vaccine may get the green light soon, the widespread effects of vaccination are months away. Even so, Americans now have valuable tools that can help.

These are the security measures promoted by officials for months: masks, social distancing, avoiding crowds and practicing good hygiene, for example through regular hand washing.

These are simple actions that could make a big difference. More than 40,000 lives could be saved in the next two months if 95 percent of Americans wore masks, according to projections from the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Parameters and Assessment.

In recent weeks, more local and state leaders have pushed for orders to wear masks in an attempt to stem the spread. This includes Republican governors who have previously opposed the promotion of similar mandates.

In West Virginia, Governor Jim Justice has been begging residents in recent weeks to cover their faces. Justice said the masks are “really the only bullet in the weapon”.

“If it bothers you, if you don’t believe it, please use it … what’s the downside,” Justice said at a press conference this week. Look, we are not among those who take over anyone’s rights. My good sir, I understand with all my heart, we do not want to do this in any way. But you have to help me, “he added.

It’s the kind of message needed by local leaders across the country, Dr. Peter Hotez, dean of tropical medicine at Baylor School of Medicine, told CNN on Thursday morning.

Keep saying this every day and hope some people will really start to believe it. This is our only hope right now. We need to limit these waves and we need local leaders to really step forward, so this is absolutely vital, “he said.

The hope is to help keep more people alive until there is a vaccine, he said.

“It’s about keeping your mother, your father, your brother, your sister alive from now on,” Hotez added. “If only we could send those messages,” he added.

The FDA may authorize vaccination weeks after the December meeting

The message is crucial as a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) decision authorizing Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine may not come until weeks after a meeting scheduled for December 10, according to an agency official.

On Thursday, President Donald Trump said vaccine deliveries would begin “next week or next week”. However, the director of the FDA’s Center for Biological Evaluation and Research presented a very different time frame the day before.

“It will be a matter of weeks. According to Dr. Peter Marks it could be days or weeks after the December 10 meeting.

“I can’t give you an exact date when we issue an emergency use permit because we have to get it right,” the FDA official said Wednesday.

The FDA Advisory Committee on Vaccines and Related Biological Products will discuss the request from Pfizer, the only company that has applied for authorization to initiate vaccine distribution.

Vaccinations will begin in the United States “towards the end of December,” according to Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

Florida extends the ban to local covid-19 restrictions

Despite the uncertain timing for a vaccine, masks remain a point of contention in many parts of the United States.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis issued an order this week that bans localities from imposing fines for violations of pandemic-related rules, such as warrants to wear a mask or restricting restaurant capacity without justification.

This decision stands in stark contrast to recent announcements by other state leaders of tighter restrictions and more enforcement. In Connecticut, Governor Ned Lamont issued a decree this week increasing the maximum fine for companies violating COVID-19 related orders to $ 10,000. The previous maximum fine was $ 500.

Daniella Levine Cava, Mayor of Miami-Dade County, He spoke on Twitter Wednesday after the extension of the governor of Florida. There he noted that “the governors of both sides across the country are following orders for the use of masks as one of the best tools we have to fight covid-19.”

“It is deeply frustrating that @GovRonDeSantis continues to block local actions and makes it difficult for local leaders to keep our communities safe,” Cava wrote.

“I ask the governor to work with local mayors so that we can bring our local knowledge to the discussion,” Cava added. “We must work together to create policies that protect all of our families and our economy in this time of crisis,” he said.

According to data from Johns Hopkins University, Florida reported more than 56,400 new infections and more than 520 deaths last week.

CNN reached out to DeSantis’ office for comment.

Only 1 in 8 cases of covid-19 in the United States would have been counted

In all, more than 12.9 million Americans have tested positive for the virus since the start of the pandemic. But a new study suggests that this figure may be only a small fraction of the actual number of infections in the country.

Only about 1 in 8, or 13 percent, of all COVID-19 infections in the country have been recognized and reported through the end of September, CDC researchers estimate. This means that up to 53 million people in the United States may have been infected from February to September. However, during that time, approximately 7 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 with symptoms were reported nationwide, the research notes.

To estimate the number of COVID-19 cases that may have been lost since the start of the pandemic, the researchers used a model to fit the reported number of symptomatic cases in the United States. They considered what was known about case detection, asymptomatic infections, patients seeking treatment or not, and the risk of false negative results.

Limitations of the study include that the availability and use of the tests have changed over time and its results serve only as estimates.

Although the numbers may seem large, the researchers wrote that, even so, “this indicates that about 84% of the US population has not yet been infected, and therefore most of the country remains at risk despite high rates. of hospitalization “.

Elizabeth Cohen, Ben Tinker, Evan Simko-Bednarski, Jacqueline Howard, Melissa Alonso, Amanda Watts and Lauren Mascaren of CNN contributed to this report.