Through Monday, the ninth day of August, the United States had already reported 969,855 coronavirus cases. That's more than double the number of cases reported in all of June, a USA TODAY analysis of Johns Hopkins University data shows. The first nine days of August also added more cases than all of May.
And while testing early in the pandemic was limited, the United States' first nine days of August included more cases than any of the months of the spring 2020 months: January, February, March, April, May or June.
At the pace of these first nine days of August, the United States would be on track to report about 3.3 million cases in the month; that's far more than any months of the summer 2020 surge. In fact, if the surge continues at this pace, August 2021 would be the fourth-worst month for cases of the entire pandemic, behind only November, December and January of the fall-winter surge. But the pace of cases continue to rise.
Deaths are rising, too; at this month's pace so far, the United States could report about 14,100 deaths, far more than July's 8,671. But the pace of deaths continues to rise.
-- Mike Stucka
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