COVID-19 has killed more than 2100 Americans in the past 48 hours alone, even as the number of new cases reported on Thursday in the United States was the second-highest on record since the pandemic began.
The new record came on the same day President Donald Trump was telling Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden during their debate that the United States was turning the corner, and that the disease would soon disappear.
Biden countered Trump after the President said Americans were “learning to live with” the deadly virus saying, “people are learning to die with it.”
The United States reported 76,195 new cases on Thursday, October 22, just shy of its one-day record high of 77,299 new cases on July 16, according to a Reuters analysis. The publication noted that only India has reported more cases in a single day: 97,894 on September 17.
At least 916 deaths were reported on Thursday, just a day after the country reported over 1200 fatalities on Wednesday, the highest daily death toll since August.
COVID-19 deaths are up 13 percent from last week, averaging 785 a day over the past seven days.
This is happening at the same time the number of COVID-19 patients in U.S. hospitals climbed to a two-month high, Reuters noted, adding that there are now nearly 41,000 hospitalized coronavirus patients across the United States, up 34 percent from October 1.
North Dakota reported 887 new cases on Thursday, the hardest-hit state, based on new cases per capita, followed by South Dakota, Montana and Wisconsin.
Texas reported the most new cases on Thursday with 6,820 new infections, followed by California with 6,365.
At least eight states set new records for single-day increases in infections, a trend that is prompting some governors to issue new restrictions, including on bars and restaurants in some parts of Illinois.
Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Montana, North Dakota, Ohio,Oklahoma and Utah all reported their biggest daily increase in cases since the pandemic hit the United States.
At least seven states reported record numbers of COVID-19 patients in the hospital: Iowa, Kentucky, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Wisconsin and Wyoming.
The number of hospitalized coronavirus patients in the Midwest reached 11,369 on Thursday, a record high for a seven-day in a row, according to Reuters analysis.
Simon Ateba is Chief White House Correspondent for Today News Africa. Simon covers President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, the U.S. government, the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and other financial and international institutions in Washington D.C. and New York City.