Over the past six days, more than one million new cases of COVID-19 have been reported in the United States as the total number of infections surpassed 11 million on Sunday (November 15). It took ten days to go from nine to ten million cases and 16 days to go from eight million to nine million.
Multiple states have reported a record number of new infections over the past few weeks as the entire country has become a coronavirus hotspot.
"We have this firestorm of coronavirus all across the country," emergency medicine physician Dr. Leana Wen told CNN. "It's not one or two hotspots, the entire country is a hotspot of coronavirus infection."
Over the past week, 45 states have seen a rapid rise in new cases, leaving hospitals overwhelmed with patients. Over 69,000 people are currently hospitalized due to complications from the coronavirus, which is a record high.
California and Texas account for 2.1 million cases, nearly 20% of the total in the country. While those states have the highest number of cases, the Midwest leads the nation in per-capita cases. On Friday, Illinois reported a single-day record of 15,433 new cases.
On Sunday, nearly 1,300 people died as the total number of deaths in the country approaches 250,000.
The recent rise in new cases has forced many states to reinstate lockdown measures while urging people to stay at home.
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