The sad milestone was recorded on the day when the number of covid-19 cases worldwide exceeded 50 million
The United States became the first country in the world to exceed 10 million cases of coronavirus, according to yesterday’s Reuters report, as the third wave of the epidemic spreads in the country.
The sad milestone was recorded on the day when the number of covid-19 cases worldwide exceeded 50 million.
About one million cases of coronavirus have been reported in the United States in the last ten days, with the country recording the fastest rate of spread of the epidemic since the disease first appeared in Washington state 293 days ago.
A record 131,420 new cases of covid-19 were detected in the United States on Saturday, while the daily report of new cases exceeded 100,000 five times in the last seven days.
More than 237,000 Americans have died from coronavirus so far. About one in 11 deaths are reported daily worldwide, according to Reuters analysis.
The death toll across the US exceeded 1,000 for a fifth straight day on Saturday, a trend that has not been recorded in the country since mid-August.
Experts warn that deaths tend to increase four to six weeks after the high incidence of cases.
The newly elected US President Joe Biden, who during his election campaign criticized the management of the pandemic by the Donald Trump administration, pledged on Saturday to make tackling the health crisis a top priority.
Biden will announce today a 12-member task force to manage the pandemic, led by former general surgeon Vivek Murty and former Food and Drug Administration commissioner David Kessler. The Coronavirus Task Force will draw up a roadmap to halt the spread of the epidemic as soon as Biden takes over the presidency in January.
The Midwestern states remain the hardest hit, with the most cases per capita. North Dakota, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Iowa and Nebraska are the five US states most affected by covid-19.
Illinois is now the new epicenter of the pandemic in the Midwest, with the state announcing more than 60,000 new cases in the last seven days, the highest number in the country. More than 12,450 new cases of covid-19 were reported in Illinois on Saturday, the state’s largest daily toll to date.
In Texas, 10% of all cases in the United States have been identified, and on Saturday the state became the first to exceed one million infections.
According to Reuters analysis, nearly 43% of all cases in the U.S. have been recorded in the southern states since the pandemic hit the country, nearly 4.3 million. This is followed by the Midwest, West and Northeast states.
New York, with more than 33,000 dead, remains the state with the highest death toll, about 14% of the total recorded in the U.S.