WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Number of new COVID-19 cases in the United States was a record high on Thursday, with health experts expecting cases to spike going forward and death rates to triple by mid-January.
88,521 new coronavirus cases were reported in the US on Thursday, according to data from Johns Hopkins University, an increase of 9,540 cases compared to Wednesday.
The previous record for highest number of cases in a single day was reported on last Friday of 84,244, followed by 79,852 on Saturday. The country now reports an average of nearly 76,590 new cases a day, which is up 25% from the previous week.
Nine states reported a record high single-day of new cases on Thursday including, Illinois, Indiana, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota and Ohio.
The COVID-19 pandemic has so far infected over 8.95 million people in the country and has taken lives of about 229 thousand people. Globally, coronavirus cases has topped 45 million and killed at least 1.18 million people.
'This is the hardest point in this pandemic right now -- the next two months,' Dr. Scott Gottlieb, former commissioner of the FDA said during an interview on CNBC's 'Squawk Box'. 'We can't give up our guard right now.'
Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, had earlier this week asked people to set politics aside and wear mask to avoid Covid shutdowns.
'We don't want to shut down completely,' Fauci said in an online interview with Howard Bauchner, the Journal of the American Medical Association's editor-in-chief. 'That's almost radioactive now when you say that because of the situation of not wanting to hurt the economy. Well, if you don't want to shut down, at least do the fundamental, basic things.the flagship of which is wearing a mask.'
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