U.S. coronavirus cases went above the 20 million mark Friday as officials tried to speed up vaccinations and a more infectious variable surface in Colorado, California and Florida.
The United States has seen a spike in the number of daily COVID-19 deaths since Thanksgiving with 78,000 lives lost in December. A total of 345,000 people have died from COVID-19, or one in every 950 U.S. residents, since the virus first appeared in China in late 2019.
To delay the death toll, Senator Mitt Romney on Friday urged the U.S. government to list veterinarians and fight doctors to provide coronavirus vaccines.
The U.S. rate of new COVID-19 infections increased in the second half of last year. 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 just 25 days to go from 15 million to 20 million cases.
California has the most total cases of any state, with approximately 2.28 million cases followed by Texas with 1.76 million cases and Florida with 1.32 million cases.
The United States receives an average of 186,000 cases per day, down from a peak in mid-December of more than 218,000 new infections per day. Health officials have warned that things will resume after holiday gatherings.
Currently, there are more than 125,000 COVID-19 patients in U.S. hospitals, up 25% on last month.
While the United States has agreed to two vaccines, rollout is going to be slower than the government had hoped. Approximately 2.8 million Americans received the COVID-19 vaccine by Dec. 31, falling far short of the 20 million target.
Despite early complications in vaccine distribution, U.S. chief infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci said Wednesday that Americans expect to receive adequate COVID-19 immunity through vaccines by autumn 2021.
The government aims to target 100 million views in arms by 1 March.
(Reuters)