WASHINGTON: The number of coronavirus cases crossed the 20 million mark in the United States as officials seek to speed up vaccinations and a more infectious variant surfaced in several states.
The United States has seen a spike in the number of daily COVID-19 fatalities since Thanksgiving with 78,000 lives lost in December. A total of 345,000 have died of COVID-19, or one out of every 950 US residents.
The U.S. rate of new COVID-19 infections increased in the second half of last year. An analysis of data shows it took 200 days to reach the first 5 million cases, 93 days to go from 5 million cases to 10 million, 31 days from 10 million to 15 million cases and only 25 days to go from 15 million to 20 million cases.
California has the most total cases of any state, with about 2.28 million infections followed by Texas with 1.76 million cases and Florida with 1.32 million cases. According to Johns Hopkins University, the US hit a record number of daily deaths on Wednesday when more than 3,900 people died of Covid-19.
The United States is averaging 186,000 cases a day, down from a peak in mid-December of over 218,000 new infections each day. Health officials have warned that cases will likely spike again after holiday gatherings. Currently, there are more than 125,000 COVID-19 patients in hospitals, up 25% in the last month.
While the United States has approved two vaccines, rollout is going more slowly than the government hoped. About 2.8 million Americans received a COVID-19 vaccine by December 31, falling far short of a 20 million target.
Despite early setbacks in the vaccine rollout, leading US infectious disease specialist Dr Anthony Fauci said that he expects Americans to achieve enough collective COVID-19 immunity through vaccinations by autumn 2021. The government’s goal is 100 million shots in arms by March 1.
President-elect Joe Biden, who takes office on January 20, has criticized the troubled vaccine rollout and implored Americans to wear masks.Under Trump, US authorities have given often mixed messages on mask-wearing, social distancing and shutdowns, and the outgoing president has repeatedly downplayed the risks.
In his New Year’s Eve message, Trump hailed his administration’s response, saying, “Our most vulnerable citizens are already receiving the vaccine, and millions of doses are quickly being shipped all across our country.”
The World Health Organization has granted emergency validation to the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, paving the way for countries worldwide to quickly approve its import and distribution.
