Just nine days after the ball dropped in Times Square, more than two million Americans had tested positive for COVID-19 in the new calendar year.
More than 24,200 people died in that same time period, according to Johns Hopkins University’s COVID dashboard.
By comparison, it took 90 days to hit two million cases in the United States in 2020, even as COVID-19 swept through nursing homes and spread around the country.
So far, more than 22,000,000 Americans have tested positive for coronavirus, with at least 372,552 deaths reported.
Despite the arrival of both Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, cases have continued skyrocketing, leaving hospitals overwhelmed.
Maryland reported a record high hospitalization rate Sunday, the third time this week the state has broken its own record.
Los Angeles County told its EMS drivers last week to determine in the field whether a patient was likely to survive; if not, they were instructed not to transport them to the hospital in order to save resources.
President-elect Biden plans to make almost every dose of the approved vaccines available as soon as he takes office in an effort to ramp up the process, CNN reported earlier this week. President Trump’s administration has been holding back doses until the second dose is available as well.
Kate Feldman, New York Daily News