By Eileen Wang
On Friday, October 30th, The United States recorded more than 99,000 Covid-19 cases, the largest number of cases recorded in a single day since the pandemic began. Almost two dozen states have been reporting their worst weeks in terms of recorded numbers of new cases. None have been showing any improvements.
A total of sixteen states had reported single-day records for new cases on Friday. Those states include Iowa, Kentucky, Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, Montana, Illinois, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Oregon, Kansas, Ohio, Colorado, and Maine. Three states, Tennessee, Montana, and New Mexico, had also reported a record number of deaths.
States throughout the United States are suffering from varying levels of coronavirus outbreaks. Some, such as North Dakota and South Dakota, have recorded extremely high numbers of cases for many weeks. Out of all the states, the Dakotas are also ranked first and second for reporting the highest numbers of recent cases per capita. Friday was the second day in a row where North Dakota experienced a single-day record for new cases. States near the Dakotas, such as Montana and Wyoming, also hit single-day records on Friday.
Midwestern states, including Illinois, Ohio, and Michigan are experiencing alarming rises in coronavirus cases. The number of new cases in Illinois has risen about 70% in the duration of two weeks. There were more than 8,010 new cases on Friday, with that being the single-day record for the second day in a row. In Ohio, a total of 3,845 new cases were recorded on Friday, with that also being the second single-day record in a row. For the past week, Michigan has received an average of more than 3,000 cases each day. The number of cases per day has increased by 88% from the average two weeks ago.
Although the numbers of cases in states like New Hampshire and Maine remain relatively lower compared to other states, three of the four highest single-day totals from this week have come from Maine, and on Friday, Rhode Island restricted gatherings to 10 people or less after a high school party led to five positive Covid-19 cases and 1,000 people in quarantine.
Hospitalizations and deaths across the country have been rising as well. More than 46,600 people with coronavirus were hospitalized on Friday, an increase of about 25% over the course of the last two weeks. This trend will likely continue in the upcoming weeks. On average, the United States had over 800 deaths per day two weeks ago, an increase from about 700 deaths a month ago.
On Thursday, more than a total of 1,000 lives were lost to coronavirus, an increase of 16% from two weeks ago. An additional 970 plus deaths were recorded on Friday, adding to a total of 229,000 Covid-19 deaths in the United States.
This week, the United States reached its worst week for new coronavirus cases, with more than 559,000 new infections reported. The country also recorded more than 9 million total cases since the pandemic started. The rise in cases is just getting started; the coronavirus still has potential to infect millions of more people. Next week, it’s expected that a surge in cases will bring the total number of cases in the United States to 10 million.
