According to figures from Johns Hopkins University, the total number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 registered in the US since the start of the pandemic last Sunday has passed 19 million.
The outbreak in the US is growing rapidly, with a million cases added in the last five days and a million cases added in the previous six days. After first recording more than 100,000 cases in one day in early November, the country registered 226,274 cases on Saturday, according to Johns Hopkins. The COVID Tracking Project says the US had an average of 185,000 cases per day between December 19 and 26.
The country has recorded 332,502 COVID-19 deaths since the start of the pandemic.
The latest grim milestone comes as health experts warn that the number of cases is likely to increase in the coming weeks as a result of people traveling and gathering for the holidays. Anthony Fauci
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“Since we’ve gone from late fall to early winter, the numbers are really quite troubling,” Fauci, a member of the White House’s COVID-19 response team, said Sunday in CNN’s “State of the Union.” .
“With more than 120,000 hospital admissions, we are really at a critical stage,” he continued before adding Christmas gatherings, “Even if we don’t recommend that, it’s going to happen.”
According to the Johns Hopkins University tracker, India, the country with the second highest number of cases, had recorded just over 10 million coronavirus infections as of Sunday. Brazil has more than 7.4 million cases.
A more contagious strain of the virus is also spreading mainly in the UK, even as both the US and UK begin to roll out the distribution of two COVID-19 vaccines. Officials have placed severe restrictions on travel from the UK, but have warned that some people carrying the new species may have already arrived in the US