COVID Deaths Surpass 225,000 in US
Data released on Saturday by John’s Hopkins University showed COVID-19 cases across the US reached the highest one-day total of 83,757 on Friday, surpassing the highest single day total since the pandemic began.
By Sunday, JHU confirmed infections nationally have reached 8.6 million with a death toll of over 225,000. Some states are currently experiencing their highest number of cases to date. In the western and central parts of the country, Alaska, Colorado, New Mexico, Illinois, Michigan and Oklahoma saw record high increases. Ohio is also experiencing a severe spike along with New Jersey, which saw some of the highest case numbers at the onset last spring. In the southwest border town of El Paso, Texas, a curfew has been put in place to mitigate the rapidly advancing spread.
Leading health experts have been warning of a surge in the fall and winter months, which they attribute in part to increased indoor gatherings and lack of mask wearing protection. As President Donald Trump continues to tour swing states with large mostly mask-less crowds, his ongoing downplay of the severity has health authorities and his opponent, Joe Biden, sounding the alarm of a “dark winter.”
In a statement issued to CNN on Sunday, White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows continued to echo the president, saying, “we’re not going to control the pandemic…because it is a contagious virus just like the flu.”
Ann Sullivan is a contributing staff writer covering national and world news topics. She brings dedicated experience having written international and domestic news, blogs, and web content for over 20 years. She’s also a published poet and graphic designer with degrees in Business and Graphic Communications and has been a music distributor, music industry sponsorship sales director and band manager.