The United States is hurtling toward yet another grim milestone of 10 million cases, with over 9.9 million reported cases as of Sunday evening, according to Johns Hopkins University data.
The country recorded 100,762 new cases and 453 new deaths as of 9:30 p.m. ET on Sunday, marking the fifth-highest day of new cases in the country since the pandemic began.
The fall resurgence has brought regular records in cases, people hospitalized and daily deaths — and experts are encouraging measures to mitigate the spread as they warn that the numbers may continue to climb in the coming weeks.
“We’re going to see these case numbers really start to explode,” former US Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb told CNBC on Friday.
The virus can be dealt with by targeting mitigation state by state, he said, but the US is not doing that currently, and the lack of intervention could build up for the future, spelling trouble for December and January, he said.
“It’s not just the cases; it’s the hospitalizations as well. That’s really the number to watch: 53,000 people hospitalized, 10,500 people in ICUs. That’s a lot, and it’s growing very quickly.”
Sixteen states reported record high Covid-19 hospitalizations Friday, according to the Covid Tracking Project, and 22 states have reported at least one record high day of coronavirus hospitalizations during November, so far.
On Sunday morning, the global number of cases topped 50 million, with the US, India, Brazil and Russia, in that order, the hardest hit, composing more than half the cases, Johns Hopkins reports.
While the total number of cases in the US approaches 10 million, Texas alone is inching toward 1 million cases, with more than 5,000 reported Sunday.
In Oregon, Gov. Kate Brown said Sunday the state has surpassed the “alarming threshold” of 50,000 cases.