WASHINGTON: The United States became the first nation worldwide since the pandemic began to surpass 10 million coronavirus infections as the third wave of the COVID-19 virus surges across the nation.
The grim milestone came on the same day as global coronavirus cases exceeded 50 million. The United states has reported about a million cases in the past 10 days, the highest rate of infections since the nation reported its case in Washington state 293 days ago.
The country reported a record 131,420 COVID-19 cases and has reported over 100,000 infections four times in the past seven days.
The US latest reported seven-day average of 105,600 daily cases is more than the combined average for India and France, two of the worst affected countries in Asia and Europe.
More than 237,000 Americans have died of COVID-19 since the illness caused by the coronavirus first emerged in China late last year. The daily average of reported new deaths in the United States accounts for one in every 11 deaths reported worldwide each day.
The number of reported deaths nationwide climbed by more than 1,000 for a fifth consecutive day on Saturday, a trend last seen in mid-August. Health experts say deaths tend to increase four to six weeks after a surge in infections.
US President-elect Joe Biden, who spent much of his election campaign criticising President Donald Trump’s handling of the pandemic, pledged to make tackling the pandemic a top priority.
Biden will announce a 12-member task force to deal with the pandemic that will be led by former surgeon general Vivek Murthy and former Food and Drug Administration commissioner David Kessler. The coronavirus task force will be charged with developing a blueprint for containing the disease once Biden takes office in January.
The Midwest remains the hardest-hit region based on the most cases per capita with North Dakota, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Iowa and Nebraska the top five worst-affected US states.
Illinois emerged as the new epicentre in the Midwest, with the state reporting over 60,000 COVID-19 infections in the last seven days, the highest in the country. The state reported more than 12,454 new cases on Saturday, the highest single-day number so far.
Texas, which accounts for 10 percent of total US cases, is the hardest-hit state and became the first to surpass a million coronavirus cases in the United States. New York, with over 33,000 fatalities, remains the state with highest number of deaths and accounts for about 14 percent of total US deaths.
The South region comprises nearly 43 percent of all the cases in the United States since the pandemic began, with nearly 4.3 million cases in the region alone, followed by the Midwest, West and Northeast.
The United States performed about 10.5 million coronavirus tests in the first seven days of November, of which 6.22 percent came back positive, compared with 6.17 percent seven days earlier, according to data from The COVID Tracking Project, a volunteer-run effort to track the outbreak.
