While daily COVID-19 cases in the US near the 200,000-mark in an average, experts suggest people not following the safety protocols is the reason behind the recent surge plaguing the country.

“People are going indoors, they’re not minding the three W’s,” Health and Human Services secretary, Alex Azar, told Fox News on Sunday. “Our advice is always the same. Wash your hands, watch your distance, wear face coverings.”

The health experts had long predicted and warned that the holiday season would bring a spike in coronavirus cases as people increasingly gather indoors. 

The US has still not seen the full effects of a potential surge of infections fueled by the gatherings and travelling during the Thanksgiving holiday. Azar told ABC the holiday season might have more devastation in store.

“We’re worried about people and the behaviours coming up with Christmas,” he said. “We want to make sure everyone’s loved ones are there next Christmas, especially when we have so much hope of vaccines.”

As per data compiled by Johns Hopkins University, the US averaged a record 196,233 new cases over the last week as of Sunday.  

With the recent spike in cases, record hospitalizations have followed.

On Sunday, 101,487 patients were in the hospital with the virus, the fifth consecutive day the US surpassed 100,000 hospitalizations.

Meanwhile, the increase has pushed some states to take aggressive measures, including the new stay-at-home orders in the more populous California, which reported an all-time high for hospitalizations with 10,624 patients.

While in regards to the vaccine, both Moderna and Pfizer have submitted their candidates to the US Food and Drug Administration for emergency use authorisation. The FDA will meet Thursday to decide on authorization for Pfizer’s vaccine.

Moncef Slaoui, the chief scientific adviser of Operation Warp Speed, said to CNN, “We should be able to have immunized that full population, and the health care workers that take care of them by the end of the month of December or by the middle of the month of January.” 

More than 14.7 million confirmed cases have been reported in the US since the pandemic began, and more than 282,310 people have died.