The United States has passed 5 million coronavirus cases, while the overall death toll stands at over 160,000, according to several unofficial tallies by mainstream media, who rushed to report yet another grim record.
“With one out of every 66 residents infected, the United States leads the world in COVID-19 cases,” Reuters reported on Saturday night, citing their own tally and calling it a “grim milestone.” The New York Times confirmed the count, emphasizing that “no other country has reported as many cases.” Those forced to rely on lagging official data, yet unwilling to miss the news cycle, had to report that the US is ‘nearing’ five million cases.
The US indeed leads the world with over a fifth of total global deaths attributed to Covid-19, and over 25 percent of officially confirmed cases. However, when it comes to death per capita – roughly 500 per 1 million residents – the country ranks better than the UK, Belgium, Peru, Spain, Italy, Chile, and Sweden.
Our daily update is published. States reported 665k tests and 54k cases. 1,088 COVID-19 deaths were reported today, about 100 down from last Saturday. pic.twitter.com/uiCUQJlNjh
With the pandemic raging for over five months now, it is also hard to estimate how many of those five million infections are still active.
The current number of hospitalizations of people who tested positive for Covid-19 stands at just over 50,000 across the US, according to the Covid Tracking Project, which is a slight drop from the peaks of nearly 60,000 on July 24 and April 15.
Wake up, America! Check out US Hospitalizations for COVID-19, to the week of 8/1/20. Why are we discussing lockdowns again? We are back to where we were around the beginning of June. pic.twitter.com/BXeRC4s1y5
President Donald Trump has dismissed concerns about the rising numbers on multiple occasions, accusing the media of deliberately reporting the scariest figures, and claiming they are only high because there has been more mass testing for the virus across the country.
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