Coronavirus Pandemic Sets New Record
Health Care

Coronavirus Pandemic Sets New Record

Reuters/Dado Ruvic

The United States keeps setting troubling Covid-19 records. The number of daily cases hit a new high of 88,521 on Thursday, up nearly 83% over the last month, and the weekly case count rose to 536,131, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

On Friday, the nation surpassed 9 million total cases — just two weeks after it reached 8 million.

“It’s not just a few areas driving the surge, as was the case early on,” The New York Times reports. “Half of U.S. counties saw new cases peak during the past month. Almost a third saw a record in the past week.”

Forty-three states have reportedly seen an increase in cases compared to last week, and nine states reported single-day records for new cases on Thursday. Bloomberg News reports that 14 states recorded all-time highs in cases this week.

Death toll projected to surge: “The recent surge in cases has not yet brought a similar surge in reported deaths, which can lag cases by up to several weeks. But already deaths are increasing in about half of states,” the Times says.

Another 971 people died of the disease on Thursday, even as Donald Trump Jr. told Fox News that the number of Americans dying from Covid-19 amounts to “almost nothing.” And The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington School of Medicine projects that it’s likely that some 2,250 Americans will be dying daily by the middle of January.

The death toll could climb from more than 229,000 as of Friday to about 400,000 by February 1. “If states do not react to rising numbers by re-imposing mandates, cumulative deaths could reach 514,000 by the same date,” IHME said in its latest report. On the other hand, increasing mask use to the level seen in Singapore could prevent 62,000 deaths by February, IMHE said.

So wear a mask.

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