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Coronavirus cases hit 40 million worldwide, may increase with holiday season

Local health expert says coronavirus fatigue may be increasing the number of cases.

COLLEGE STATION, Texas — Coronavirus cases have exceeded 40 million worldwide. Cases of have surpassed 850,000 in Texas, and it does not look like the cases are stopping anytime soon. 

“I think what we’re seeing with COVID is COVID fatigue in individual behaviors. We cracked down and then we started to kind of relax a little bit when we thought we had better control and saw an increase in cases. Then we cracked back down again and once again, cases were on the decline. People were just very weary of COVID," said Texas A&M School of Public Health's Angela Clendenin.  

Clendenin said as states begin to reopen and people want to return to their normal routines, they are leaving behind some protective behaviors they were practicing at the beginning of the virus.  

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“At the end of the day, it’s all about transmission and that is from person to person so that becomes a very individual action and very individual behavior. All have to agree to continue to remain vigilant," said Clendenin.

As the weather becomes colder heading into the holiday season, cases of coronavirus may just increase.  

“We have to anticipate that there will be an increase in cases and people do stay indoors. Again, we’re heading into a holiday season with family gathering. Even if you’re not having a big holiday party this year, it’s a season where people tend to do a lot of things with families, so we need to be especially vigilant in our masks and our physical distancing with social interaction because we want to protect the older members of our family from any type of transmission that might be occurring," said Clendenin. 

She added that it’s important to respect the disease for what it is and what it can do until a vaccine is created. 

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