WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Covid-19 cases in the U.S. continue to rise, with experts expecting a rapid acceleration in about a week.
According to data from Johns Hopkins University, the US recorded more than 60,300 new cases on Tuesday. The national seven-day case average hit about 59,500, an increase of about 73% in five and a half weeks.
The COVID-19 pandemic has so far infected over 8.28 million people in the country has taken lives of more than 221 thousand people.
The pandemic has now killed at least 1.13 people worldwide with more than 40.93 million people been diagnosed with COVID-19.
'It's going to be a difficult fall and winter,' Dr. Scott Gottlieb, former commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration, told CNBC. 'I think we're about two or three weeks behind Europe -- so we're about a week away from starting to enter a period where we're going to see a rapid acceleration in cases.'
The outbreak is surging in more than half of states. California has the most cases of any U.S. state, reporting 4,387 new cases in the last 24 hours to bring the total cases to 885,258. Texas and Florida are also recording rapid increase in cases, reporting 5,612 and 3,662 new cases on Tuesday, respectively.
Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump, at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania, said that the country is 'crushing' COVID-19 despite death toll from the virus surpassing 220,000 in the country
Speaking at a campaign rally in Erie, Pennsylvania, Trump said, 'The [Joe] Biden lockdown will crush America, we will crush the virus, we're doing that. We're crushing the virus, look at our numbers compared to Europe. They always said 'look at Europe, Europe, Europe' but look at our numbers compared.'
However, according to JHU, the current COVID-19 death rates across most of Europe are lower than that reported in the U.S.
According to reports, AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine trial in the US is expected to resume as early as this week after the FDA completed its review of a serious illness. AstraZeneca's late-stage trial has been on hold since September 6, after a participant in the company's UK trial fell ill with what was suspected to be a rare spinal inflammatory disorder called transverse myelitis.
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