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Coronavirus cases in the US have crossed the 20 million mark as officials seek to accelerate vaccines and a more infectious variant emerges in Colorado, California and Florida.
Medical staff treat a patient in the Covid-19 intensive care unit on New Years Eve at United Memorial Medical Center in Texas
Photo: GETTY via AFP
The United States has seen an increase in the number of daily deaths from Covid-19 since Thanksgiving with 78,000 lives lost in December. A total of 345,000 have died of Covid-19, or one in every 950 U.S. residents, since the virus first appeared in China in late 2019.
To reduce the death toll, Senator Mitt Romney urged the United States government on Friday (local time) to recruit veterinarians and combat medics to administer coronavirus vaccines.
The US rate of new Covid-19 infections increased in the second half of last year. An analysis of Reuters Data shows that 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.
The United States has an average of 186,000 cases per day, down from the mid-December peak of more than 218,000 new infections per day. Health officials have warned that cases will likely spike again after the holiday gatherings.
Currently, there are more than 125,000 Covid-19 patients in US hospitals, up 25 percent in the last month.
Although the United States approved two vaccines, implementation is slower than the government expected. Roughly 2.8 million Americans received a Covid-19 vaccine by December 31, well below the target of 20 million.
Despite the early setbacks in the launch of the vaccine, America’s leading infectious disease specialist Dr. Anthony Fauci said on Wednesday that he hopes Americans will achieve sufficient Covid-19 herd immunity through the vaccines for fall 2021.
The government’s goal is 100 million gun shots by March 1.
– Reuters
