MASSIVE SIGH

U.S. Surpasses 100,000 New COVID-19 Cases in a Single Day

The country broke pandemic records the day after Election Day.

For the first time since the start of the pandemic, the United States has logged 100,000 new COVID-19 cases in a single day, The Washington Post reports. Seventeen states reported record numbers of COVID-19 hospitalizations Wednesday, while Maine, Minnesota, Idaho and Indiana set single-day records for new infections. “We are again in danger of losing control of this pandemic in Iowa,” the chief executive at University of Iowa’s health system wrote in a Monday blog post. “Our COVID positivity rates skyrocketed twice before, but this is the first time we have seen rates this high while also dealing with record patient hospitalizations.” Hospitals in Nebraska and Arkansas also face bed and health-care worker shortages. With the earliest vaccine results possibly only coming in December, the nation faces the same challenge of enforcing CDC health and safety guidelines to minimize the pandemic’s mortality and impact on the health-care system.