Pedestrians walk in Times Square in New York, the United States, Nov. 9, 2020.(Xinhua/Wang Ying)
The United States has set new world records in COVID-19 key metrics as daily case count topped at an all-time high of over 134,000, and hospitalizations reached more than 65,000, according to data updated Wednesday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Key metrics, including daily new cases, 7-day average increase and hospitalizations, all marked the highest since the onset of the pandemic in the country, trending in the wrong direction as health officials warn of a dangerous fall ahead.
A total of 134,383 new COVID-19 cases were reported across the country on Tuesday, a new record daily increase around the world, pushing the seven-day average daily increase to a record high of 116,228 cases.
It marked the sixth time in a week that daily case count surpassed 100,000.
A total of 1,859 deaths from coronavirus were recorded nationwide on Tuesday, the highest since June 25, bringing the seven-day average death increase to 1,086, according to CDC data.
In one week, new daily coronavirus cases in the United States went from 104,000 to more than 145,000 on Wednesday, the latest all-time high, said a report of The Washington Post.
Over 65,000 hospitalized cases were reported currently in the country, setting a new record for hospitalizations since the outbreak of the pandemic, according to latest data of the COVID Tracking Project.
There are now 40 percent more people hospitalized with COVID-19 than there were two weeks ago, data showed.
A total of 17 states are at their current peaks for hospitalizations as of Tuesday, according to the tracking project. Hospitals are already on the brink of being overwhelmed in states including Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, Texas, Utah, and Wisconsin.
The current wave of COVID-19 infections stretches across the whole country, and hospitalizations are rising in every region. Hospitalizations per capita in the Midwest have now outpaced the peak over the summer in the South, according to the tracking project.
"The new hospitalization record underscores that we've entered the worst period for the pandemic since the original outbreak in the Northeast," the project tweeted.
Experts and local health officials warn that healthcare systems in many states will be dangerously stressed if cases continue to rise.
Earlier this week, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued an emergency use authorization for American drugmaker Eli Lilly's monoclonal antibody therapy to treat mild to moderate COVID-19 infections in adults and children.
This is the first monoclonal antibody to be authorized for use in treating COVID-19 in the United States. Anthony Fauci, director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, called it an important first step in developing treatments that will help prevent people from being hospitalized with COVID-19.
Distribution of the newly approved treatment will begin this week, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said Tuesday.
"Getting new therapeutics like this to patients has the potential to save thousands of lives and significantly reduce the disease's burden on our health care system," Azar said.
The United States has recorded more than 10,398,000 cases with more than 241,600 related deaths as of Wednesday night, according to the real-time count kept by Johns Hopkins University.
