Coronavirus: Hospitalizations soar as 1 million COVID-19 cases reported nationwide in 10 days
COVID-19-related hospitalizations surpassed 60,000 on Tuesday, the highest number recorded in the United States in a single day since the novel coronavirus pandemic began.
Meanwhile, the nation recorded a total of 1,129,463 new coronavirus cases in the past 10 days, alone, as the year-to-date total soared past 10 million cases, The Guardian reported, citing a Johns Hopkins University tally.
According to the COVID-19 Tracking Project, virus-related hospitalizations have more than doubled across the nation in less than two months, and the number of Americans hospitalized with the virus has risen nearly 50% in only the past two weeks, USA Today reported.
The previous record for COVID-19-related hospitalizations was 59,780 on April 12, but that figure tapered off gradually to only 28,608 on Sept. 20 and has risen steadily since then, the outlet reported.
Meanwhile, with nearly 241,000 virus-related deaths confirmed by Wednesday, the United States accounts for only about 4.3% of the global population but nearly 19% of COVID-19 deaths to date.
Michael Osterholm, director of the Centre for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota and a member of President-elect Joe Biden’s COVID-19 advisory board, told CNN that daily cases could soon double.
“We are watching cases increase substantially in this country far beyond, I think, what most people ever thought could happen. … It will not surprise me if in the next weeks we see over 200,000 new cases a day,” Osterholm told the network.
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