The United States broke a record Friday for the highest number of new cases of COVID-19 in one day, as California and New Jersey experienced a massive one-day rise.
According to the COVID tracking project, 310,080 new cases were reported on Friday, 50,000 of them in California and 20,000 in New Jersey.
It’s because 23,083 COVID-19 deaths had already been recorded in the first eight days of the year and 16 states reported their highest number of COVID-19 hospitalizations this week, in even more troubling signs for the post-holiday spike.
There were again records for the seven-day mean for cases, hospitalizations, and deaths, with fatalities reaching an average of 2,934.
This week, 16 states reported their highest number of COVID-19 hospitalizations. In the photo, patients are pushed into the emergency room at LAC USC Hospital
The rise in the number of cases on Friday now means that 44 states have reported at least 500 COVID-19 cases per million people, according to the COVID tracking project, pictured above
23,083 COVID-19 deaths had already been recorded in the first eight days of the year, as depicted in the monthly graph from the COVID tracking project on the far right
The data from the COVID Tracking Project showed that 3 774 more Americans died from COVID-19 Friday, while the national hospital admissions are currently at 131,889.
The rise in the number of cases on Friday now means that 44 states have reported at least 500 COVID-19 cases per million people.
The worst hit state since the pandemic is New Jersey, which peaked again on Friday and registered 2,694 infections per million inhabitants.
It is followed by Kansas with 1,889 cases per million people and Arizona with 1,602 infections per million people.
Arizona has also surpassed the summer surge in hospital admissions, with patients increasing at an alarming rate.
On Wednesday, health experts named Arizona as the new global coronavirus hotspot, as the Arizona state outbreak took a new turn.
The state now leads the nation with the highest COVID-19 diagnosis rate.
As of December 31, one in 111 Arizonans has been diagnosed with the virus.
The wave of new cases on Friday came when Dr. Deborah Birx warned that the US could have its own home-grown mutant COVID-19 strain, in the same way that Britain does, because the virus is spreading so quickly.
The United States broke a record Friday for the highest number of new cases of COVID-19 in one day, as California and New Jersey saw a massive one-day rise, in the second photo from the left.
Sixteen states have recorded the highest number of hospital admissions this week
Hospital admissions are on the rise at alarming rates in Arizona and California in particular
Birx, who announced her retirement before Christmas when Joe Biden takes office, after getting a red face over the holidays for ignoring COVID guidelines, made the analysis at a recent meeting of the White House coronavirus task force.
She presented a series of graphs and charts, officials said, showing a severe spike in cases.
Birx speculated that this could be because a new, more contagious variant of the virus is circulating – in the same way that Britain is shocked by the new B.1.1.7 strain.
Her concerns got through in the weekly report sent to state governors that was leaked Friday.
“This fall / winter rise is nearly twice the rate of the spring and summer rises,” the report said.
This acceleration suggests that there may be an American variant that has evolved here, in addition to the British variant that is already spreading in our communities and may be 50% more transferable.
“Aggressive restriction should be used to match a more aggressive virus.”
Nationally, more than 21.8 million Americans have been infected with the coronavirus since the start of the pandemic, and there have been 368,679 deaths.