A record surge of coronavirus cases in the United States is pushing hospitals to the brink of capacity and killing up to 1000 people a day, the latest figures show, as the country's attention turns toward Tuesday's presidential election.
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The United States recorded its nine millionth case on Friday, nearly three per cent of the population, with almost 229,000 dead since the outbreak of the pandemic early this year, according to a Reuters tally of publicly reported data.
The country broke its single-day record for new coronavirus infections on Thursday, reporting at least 91,248 new cases, according the tally. The accelerating pace of infections continued as data trickled in on Friday, with 12 states reporting a record number of new daily cases.
Serious cases of COVID-19 were on the rise as well, as hospitals in six states reported having the most patients suffering from the disease since the pandemic started. The number of hospitalised COVID-19 patients has risen more than 50 per cent in October to 46,000, the highest since mid-August.
Among the hard-hit states are those most hotly contested in the campaign between Republican President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden, such as Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
For the third time this month, more than 1000 people died of the virus on Thursday, and the pace of fatal cases is expected to continue rising.
The University of Washington's newly updated model projects the death toll, which had been holding at a monthly pace of just more than 22,000 for most of October, will start climbing next month towards a record of more than 72,000 in January.
The January projection by the university's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation would eclipse the nearly 61,000 fatalities in April when the pandemic first exploded in the United States and overwhelmed hospitals in New York City.
"Our hospitals cannot keep up with Utah's infection rate. You deserve to understand the dire situation we face," Utah Governor Gary Herbert said on Twitter, echoing officials in other states and public health experts.
Ashish Jha, dean of the Brown University School of Public Health in Providence, Rhode Island, said the country still lacked adequate testing.
Trump has repeatedly played down the virus, saying for weeks that the country is "rounding the turn", even as new cases and hospitalisations soared.
Biden and fellow Democrats in Congress have criticised the president for his handling of the health crisis.
Australian Associated Press
