The handling of the coronavirus pandemic is one of the big issues in this election, and today voters will decide who will lead the country as we continue to battle the virus.

While some Americans have "COVID-19 fatigue," the feeling is not mutual.

"The virus doesn't get tired. It just keeps on going. It's looking for new opportunities," says Harvard Medical School professor William Haseltine.

The U.S. is averaging more than 80,000 new cases per day, according to Johns Hopkins University.

"Seven hundred deaths from COVID-19 per million people. In Vietnam, that number is nowhere near 700, it's 0.36, in South Korea, it's nine deaths per million people," says Dr. Seema Yasmin, a CNN medical analyst.

A total of 14 states, including Alaska, Iowa, North Dakota, West Virginia and Wyoming had record-setting hospitalizations last week.

Some medical experts warn if this upward trend doesn't reverse soon, mandatory lockdowns may become necessary.

"We are already running short on many critical medications and we're also going to run out of health care workers, which means that patient care is going to suffer and we'll be at a breaking point at our hospitals," says Dr. Leana Wen, a CNN medical analyst.

Health officials say COVID-19 isn't going away regardless of who wins the 2020 presidential election and that individuals can play a big role in fighting the pandemic.

"There is an easy way to turn this around and then there's a really hard way to turn this around. The easy way to turn this around is for everyone to wear a mask. The hard way to turn this around is to start shutting down our economy again," says Dr. Jonathan Reiner, of George Washington University.

More than 61,000 children in the U.S. tested positive for COVID-19 in the week that ended on Oct. 29, according to a report from the American Academy of Pediatrics.

It says that was the biggest increase in children's cases since the start of the pandemic.