It took six months for the U.S. to record its first 4 million cases of COVID-19. It took just seven days to reach the most recent 4 million, a USA TODAY analysis of Johns Hopkins University data shows.
The country had 4.02 million cases in the seven-day period ending Wednesday, up 89% from the previous week. Twenty-nine states set weekly records. The U.S. is now averaging about 575,000 known cases per day, or 400 every minute. With asymptomatic cases, limited access to testing at facilities and home-testing results that are not reported, the real number could be far higher.
More than 121,000 people were hospitalized with COVID-19, up nearly 30% from a week earlier, Department of Health and Human Services data show.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, President Joe Biden's chief medical adviser, said preliminary studies indicating the omicron variant now sweeping the nation is less severe in many patients than previous versions of the virus should not encourage complacency.
"A certain proportion of a large volume of cases, no matter what, are going to be severe," Fauci said. "So don't take this as a signal that we can pull back from the recommendations ... for vaccination, for boostering, for wearing masks and all the other CDC recommendations."
– Mike Stucka
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