Medical technicians work at a drive-thru coronavirus disease (COVID-19) testing facility at the Regeneron Pharmaceuticals company’s Westchester campus in Tarrytown, New York, U.S. September 17, 2020. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
The total number of COVID-19 cases in the United States topped 12.21 million on Monday, according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University.
The U.S. COVID-19 case count rose to 12,219,446, with a total of 256,725 deaths as of 0025 GMT, according to the CSSE tally.
Compared to the similar time of the previous day, over 160,000 new cases were identified across the country, with 1,050 new death reported.
The United States remains the worst-hit country by the pandemic with the world’s highest caseload and death toll.
Starting from November 3, the number of U.S. daily cases have been surging above the threshold of 100,000, which has never been seen in past months.
The new COVID-19 case count in the U.S. for November accounts for around one-quarter of the country’s total caseload ever since the pandemic outbreak.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, an expert on the White House Coronavirus Task Force and director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, expressed his worries of another spike of new cases in the nation following the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday.
In a scientific brief updated on November 20, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) noted masks are intended to reduce the emission of virus-laden droplets, especially for asymptomatic or presymptomatic infected wearers, who are estimated to account for more than 50 percent of transmissions.
As the Thanksgiving season approaches, the CDC released guidance on holiday celebrations. Given the high risks of exposure to the coronavirus through travel and gathering, the safest way to celebrate Thanksgiving is to celebrate at home with the people one lives with, according to the guidance.
Yet data released by the U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) said it screened over one million airline passengers on Friday, the second-highest record since March.