U.S. COVID-19 cases exceed 20 million as deaths increase

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(Reuters) – U.S. coronavirus cases topped 20 million on Friday as officials try to speed up vaccinations and a more infectious variant surface in Colorado, California and Florida.

FILE PHOTO: Tanna Ingraham places a sheet over the body of a patient who died inside the coronavirus disease unit (COVID-19) at the United Memorial Medical Center in Houston, Texas, USA, on December 30, 2020. REUTERS / Callaghan O’Hare / Photo file

The United States has experienced 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 from COVID-19, or one in 950 U.S. residents, since the virus first emerged in China in late 2019. (Chart: tmsnrt.rs/34pvUyi)

To curb the death toll, Sen. Mitt Romney on Friday urged the U.S. government to hire veterinarians and fight doctors to give coronavirus vaccines.

The U.S. 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 to 10 million, 31 days to go from 10 to 15 million cases and only 25 days to go from 15 to 20 billion cases.

California has the total number of 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 makes an average of 186,000 cases a day, below 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 holiday meetings.

There are currently more than 125,000 COVID-19 patients in U.S. hospitals, up 25% from last month.

Although the United States has approved two vaccines, the launch is slower than the government expected. About 2.8 million Americans received a vaccine against COVID-19 on December 31, which was well below the 20 million target.

Despite the first setbacks in the launch of the vaccine, the leading specialist in infectious diseases in the United States, Dr. Anthony Fauci said Wednesday that he hopes Americans will achieve enough collective immunity against COVID-19 through vaccinations in the fall of 2021.

The government’s target is 100 million gunshots on March 1.

Reports of Anurag Maan and Kavya B in Bengaluru; Edited by Lisa Shumaker

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