Coronavirus: A terrifying U.S. record: more than 100,000 cases in a day, two days running
While Americans focused on a nail-biting stream of election results, the country reached a tragic record, recording more than 100,000 new daily cases on both Wednesday and Thursday — a global first.
In contrast to the spring, when outbreaks were occurring largely in the Northeast, and the summer, when they were clustered in the Sun Belt, the pandemic has now engulfed most of the nation, reaching new heights in nearly half of the country. Twenty-three states recorded more cases over the past week than in any other seven-day stretch.
Places like Minnesota, Nebraska, Colorado and Indiana have all hit single-day case records. Regionally, the Midwest and the Great Plains — including North and South Dakota and Wisconsin — have for weeks led the country in cases per capita, and the infection rates are getting worse.
Those hunting for signs of progress will be hard pressed to find any. Deaths related to the virus, which lag behind case reports, have increased 21 percent across the country in the past two weeks, reaching 1,616 on Wednesday. More than 50,000 people are hospitalized with Covid-19 across the country, an increase of roughly 64 percent since the beginning of October.
And while things are bad now, to be blunt, there are very real possibilities that they’ll worsen over the coming month. Tens of millions of Americans turned out to vote in person in the presidential race this week. Earlier this week, our colleague Sarah Mervosh told us that after the last time Americans voted during a pandemic (in 1918), infections remained high for months, although there were other contributing factors.
Given that the incubation period of the virus can range up to two weeks, we can expect to have a better idea of election-linked cases before Thanksgiving — which is when hundreds of thousands of college students will travel home, and family gatherings could become petri dishes for the virus.
The New York Times
Me: I really think China should be held accountable for Coronavirus in a military manner.