Washington, Nov 10 : Experts have expressed worries that the United States is ill-prepared for the incoming cold season and holidays when the COVID-19 pandemic could spiral into its deadliest phase, according to media reports. The United States is heading into a fall holiday season marked by family gatherings and longer periods indoors, while the signs of further COVID-19 restrictions are basically non-existent, according to the article published Sunday by The Guardian. Washington's strategy toward the pandemic boils down to one word -- hope, which is not a strategy, said Carlos del Rio, executive associate dean of the Emory School of Medicine and Grady Health System in Georgia, Xinhua news agency reported on Monday. He predicted that the daily number of new cases could reach 200,000 by Thanksgiving, if the country's public health measures continue as they currently operate. "We are heading into the very worst of the pandemic right now," Megan Ranney, an emergency room doctor at Brown University told The Guardian, adding that the fate of the country in the pandemic depends much on the next two months. The situation could be exacerbated as US businesses are exhausting their pandemic relief aid, an ominous sign foreboding more layoffs and bankruptcies, the report said. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Sunday reported a record-high average daily increase of COVID-19 cases at nearly 100,000, a new milestone since the onset of the pandemic in the country. The country's national tally of COVID-19 cases has topped 9,944,000, with over 237,400 deaths as of Sunday afternoon, according to Johns Hopkins University. /IANS