(Reuters) – US coronavirus cases exceeded a margin of 20 million on Friday, while officials are trying to speed up vaccinations and a more infectious variant of surfaces in Colorado, California and Florida.
The United States saw an increase in the number of daily COVID-19 deaths on Thanksgiving Day, with 78,000 lives lost in December. A total of 345,000 have died from COVID-19, or one in 950 US residents, since the virus first appeared in China in late 2019. (Chart: tmsnrt.rs/34pvUyi)
To slow the death toll, Sen. Mitt Romney on Friday called on the U.S. government to enroll veterinarians and fight doctors to administer coronavirus vaccinations.
The US rate of new COVID-19 infections rose 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 to reach 10 million at 15 million cases and only 25 days to go from 15 million to 20 million cases.
California has the most total cases in 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 a day, down from a peak in mid-December of more than 218,000 new infections each day. Health officials have warned that cases are likely to rise again after the holiday rallies.
There are currently more than 125,000 patients with COVID-19 in US hospitals, up 25% in the last month.
While the United States has approved two vaccines, the launch is slower than the government hopes. About 2.8 million Americans received a COVID-19 vaccine by December 31, well above the 20 million target.
Despite early failures to launch the vaccine, US infectious disease specialist Dr. Anthony Fauci said on Wednesday that he expects Americans to obtain sufficient collective immunity from COVID-19 through vaccinations by fall 2021.
The government’s target is 100 million gunshots by March 1.
Reporting by Anurag Maan and Kavya B in Bengaluru; Edited by Lisa Shumaker