On Friday, U.S. recorded 83,010 cases, the most in one day since July. According to data compiled by John Hopkins University, the U.S. recorded 71,671 new coronavirus cases on Thursday.
The U.S. also recorded 856 deaths from COVID-19 on Thursday, raising the death toll to more than 223,000 people lost to the pandemic.
According to the Covid Tracking Project, nearly 8.5 million cases of coronavirus have been reported in America since the pandemic began.
The daily increase on Friday surpassed by more than 6,000 cases the tracking project’s previous record of 76,842 on 17 July. Over the last week, the US has tallied 441,541 new infections – its largest seven-day increase since the end of July.
The number of people who’ve died after contracting coronavirus has also steadily increased during the last six days, but is still significantly below the peak of over 2,000 daily deaths reported in April.
Cases have been rising sharply since the middle of September, when the daily rate was hovering around 40,000 cases.
Public health experts are keeping an close eye to see if Friday’s results are an aberration or part of an ominous new pattern. When the U.S. hit a record of more than 77,000 cases in mid-July, it topped the 70,000-mark on several other days as well — and the numbers stayed worryingly high through the end of the month.
U.S. testing levels have risen gradually since July. While 856,567 tests were reported on July 16 – the date of the previous high – the country reported more than a million tests on two days this week. The U.S. first surpassed the million-test mark in mid-September.
The new surge is different from the summer. Many states are now propelling the new cases, rather than a few large states driving the rise.
The U.S. has reported more than 8.4 million coronavirus cases, trailed by India with 7.7 million and Brazil with 5.3 million cases.
Data for Friday has not yet been released by the federal Centers for Disease Control (CDC). Here are the 10 states with the most coronavirus cases in the past seven days as of Thursday afternoon.
Texas: 33,727
Illinois: 28,161
Wisconsin: 25,109
California: 22,712
Florida: 20,446
Tennessee: 15,323
Ohio: 14,340
North Carolina: 14,185
Michigan: 13,417
Indiana: 13,127
