WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - COVID-19 infections continued to rise above the 1,40,000 mark for the second consecutive day in the United States.
1,47,273 new cases recorded in the last 24 hours was the second worst daily toll in the country since the pandemic began.
With this, the country's total number of COVID-19 infections increased to 10400943, as per latest data from the Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering.
2,117 new deaths in the same period took the total casualties to 241800.
This is for the first time since June 25 that COVID casualties are crossing the 2000 mark a day.
Since the beginning of this month, cases are multiplying in the United States, breaking all-time records day-by-day.
Cases skyrocketed breaking the 10,0000 mark last week, and continued rising for the last eight days.
New COVID cases in the U.S. rose by nearly 150 percent within a month.
Simultaneously, the country is witnessing a record number of COVID patients in hospitals.
The U.S. has set a record for the second consecutive day in the number of new coronavirus hospitalizations reported nationwide.
Wednesday, 65,400 people were hospitalized with COVID-19, more than at any other time in the pandemic, according to the latest data published by the Covid Tracking Project after tallying state records.
'Hospitalizations are now rising very quickly. The last three days standout, but across all of November, we're averaging 1,636 more current hospitalizations each day.'
On a per capita basis, more people are now dying across the Midwest than even at the peak of the summer surge in the South, says the U.S. collaborative volunteer-run effort to track the pandemic.
The outbreak is rapidly worsening with the virus spreading in bars, gyms, restaurants, and mass gatherings across the country.
Michael T. Osterholm, director of the University of Minnesota's Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, predicted that the national daily cases will soon shoot up to 200,000-plus. He compared the current trend to forest fire.
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