FILE: Washington D.C., USA - May 12, 2020 (CGTN - No access Chinese mainland)
1. White House
2. Sign reading "Area closed, please use Lafayette Park"

FILE: West Covina, California, USA - 2020 (CGTN - No access Chinese mainland)
3. Various of drive-through testing site, medical workers

Beijing, China - Nov 21, 2020 (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
4. Screenshot of report by New York Times

FILE: San Francisco, California, USA - Sept 12, 2020 (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
5. Pedestrians

Beijing, China - Nov 21, 2020 (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
6. Screenshot of report by New York Times

FILE: New York City, USA - July, 2020 (FSN - No access Chinese mainland/Iran/Russia)
7. Various of ambulance
8. Board reading "Emergency Ambulances Only"
9. Ambulance, street
10. Medical staff transferring patient on stretcher from ambulance

Beijing, China - Nov 21, 2020 (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
11. Screenshot of research by Kaiser Family Foundation

New York City, USA - Oct 2020 (CGTN - No access Chinese mainland)
12. Various of restaurant customers

Beijing, China - Nov 21, 2020 (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
13. Screenshot of report by New York Times

New York City, USA - Oct 2020 (CGTN - No access Chinese mainland)
14. Various of notice reading "We will be closing until further notice"

Beijing, China - Nov 21, 2020 (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
15. Screenshot of report by Newsweek

FILE: Chicago, USA - May 2020 (CGTN - No access Chinese mainland)
16. Various of doctor giving CPR to patient
17. Doctors, nurse treating patient

Beijing, China - Nov 21, 2020 (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
18. Screenshot of report by New York Times

FILE: California, USA - 2020 (CGTN - No access Chinese mainland)
19. Various of staff members, medics working in parking lot

The lack of a coordinated national response to COVID-19 in the United States should be blamed for the surging number of cases and deaths, according to media reports.

The United States logged a record of 187,833 new cases on Thursday, the 16th consecutive day of more than 100,000 new cases, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

It only took three weeks for the United States to increase the daily confirmed cases from 100,000 to nearly 200,000.

It was a stunning number that showed a virus spreading out of control, stated an article by the New York Times.

Even if the current seven-day national average of about 166,000 daily cases were to hold until the end of the year, nearly seven million more people would contract the virus. That is roughly equivalent to about two percent of the U.S. population, said the report.

It is reported that there are now more than 80,000 COVID-19 patients hospitalized in the United States, more than at any time since the outbreak began. In particular, there has been a 50 percent surge in the number of hospitalized patients compared with the number two weeks ago, and the same period saw a 63 percent rise in deaths, bringing the total to more than 252,000 so far.

The latest research by the Kaiser Family Foundation pointed out that COVID-19 has become the main cause of mortality in many countries, and is among the top three reasons in the U.S. and Belgium. If current trends continue, the death toll could reach 300,000 by New Year's Eve.

Despite a more than 60 percent drop in passenger traffic from last year, U.S. airlines still expect Thanksgiving to be the busiest flying season so far this year.

American Airlines expects to see 15 percent more flights around the holiday than during the rest of the month, Delta Airlines expects to carry about two million passengers during the holiday season, and United Airlines also expects Thanksgiving to be its busiest week since the outbreak began.

However, officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention urged Americans to avoid travel and celebrate the holiday only with members of their household.

According to an informal survey of 635 epidemiologists by the New York Times, the large majority of people are not celebrating with people outside their household, and just 21 percent said they would be dining with people outside their household - and in most cases, they described going to great lengths to do so in a safe way.

However, the advice of professionals is not shared by the American public.

According to a report by the Newsweek, Oklahoma enacted its first mask mandate on November 16 because of the soaring epidemic, but only to require state employees to wear masks in their offices. Meanwhile, a mega church boasting a 13,000-strong membership posted on Facebook that it was hosting a "Friendsgiving" on November 22 and encouraged people to "come share a meal with us and bring a neighbor."

According to a New York Times analysis of data from the University of Oxford, the number of new virus cases and hospitalizations in each state is relative to the state’s recent containment measures. The surge is worst now in places where leaders neglected to keep up forceful virus containment efforts or failed to implement basic measures like mask mandates in the first place.

A relationship between policies and the outbreak's severity has become more clear as the pandemic has progressed, said Thomas Hale, associate professor of global public policy at the Blavatnik School of Government, who leads the Oxford tracking effort.

States that have kept more controlled policies in a more consistent way — New England states, for example — have avoided a summer surge and are now having a smaller fall surge, as opposed to states that rolled them back very quickly like Florida or Texas, he said.

The reported pointed out that the biggest problem in the United States right now is that there is no strong national guidance and very different control policies from state to state on outbreak control.

The report compared the northeastern state of Maine with the mid-western state of South Dakota. The former imposed mandatory masks early in the outbreak and imposed strict entry restrictions on out-of-state visitors. South Dakota, by contrast, never imposed any mandatory requirements on wearing masks, but organized motorcycle rallies of nearly half a million people and hosted a state fair that attracted more than 100,000 visitors.

Columbia University epidemiologist Wafaa El-Sadr said by far the biggest problem in the United States is the lack of a coordinated national response. Instead, it has delegated authority to local governments to develop their own, resulting in a patchwork national epidemic prevention policy.