The United States and several states reached new records for new COVID-19 daily cases and hospitalizations this past week, showing the third surge of infection is accelerating in almost every region of the country, according to analysis from the COVID Tracking Project's co-founders in The Atlantic.
"This is the reality that the United States is facing, regardless of who will become its next chief executive: A deadly respiratory pandemic is spiraling out of control, and the number of hospitalized people — and deaths — is certain to rise over the next several months," write Robinson Meyer and Alexis Madrigal. Together they co-founded the COVID Tracking Project, a volunteer organization launched by The Atlantic and dedicated to collecting and publishing the data tracking the virus's spread in the United States.
The nation reported 116,255 new cases of COVID-19 Nov. 5, the highest single-day total on record at the time of publication, according to analysis from the COVID Tracking Project. The number of new COVID-19 cases in the U.S. recorded for Nov. 4 also marked the first time any country recorded more than 100,000 new cases in one day.
At the same time, COVID-19 hospitalizations continued their sharp increase in many states, reaching the highest level nationwide since Aug. 5. At 53,322 on Nov. 6, the number of coronavirus hospitalizations is up 16 percent in the past week. At this rate, a record number of hospitalizations could be recorded in the next week.
"The number of people hospitalized nationwide is increasing faster in November than it did in October, and — over the past 10 days — their ranks have risen by about 1,000 people a day," Mr. Madrigal and Mr. Meyer wrote in The Atlantic.
Transmission in the Midwest is two to three times worse than other U.S. regions, with 548 daily cases per million people, based on the seven-day average.