Hospitalizations spike to a record, while vaccinations jump after more states provide public reports.
The U.S. topped another somber milestone in COVID-19 cases of 18 million on Tuesday, as the number of daily new cases and deaths got back to increasing to snap a brief streak of declines.
Hospitalizations rose for the first time in four days, but by enough to mark another record.
Meanwhile, with more states publicly reporting vaccinations, the number of doses administered nationwide jumped by more than 100,000.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, received his shot Tuesday morning on TV, as did Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, a day after President-elect Joe Biden got his first shot of Pfizer Inc.’s PFE, +2.24% and BioNTech SE’s BNTX, -0.62% vaccine.
The U.S. has now recorded a total of 18,134,027 COVID-19 cases as of Tuesday morning, according to data provided by Johns Hopkins University, as the death toll rose to 321,301.
On a daily basis, new COVID-19 cases increased to 210,723 on Monday, up from 179,801 on Sunday to snap a three-day streak of declines, according to the New York Times data. At least 1,962 people died from COVID-19 on Monday, up from 1,422 on Sunday, also the first increase in four days.
The new daily counts were well below the one-day records of 280,514 (with data anomaly) in new cases seen on Dec. 11, the New York Times data shows, and 3,611 in deaths suffered on Dec. 16.
Hospitalizations jumped by 1,750 in a day to the record of 115,351, according to the COVID Tracking Project. That’s the biggest one-day increase since it rose by 2,265 on Dec. 15, and the record was the 17th reached this month.
There have now been 23 states that have publicly reported vaccinations, according to JHU data, with the dose count climbing to 244,706 from 144,336 the day before. The states that have reported the most doses administered are Florida with 43,716 and Texas with 42,248.
This comes amid growing concerns over a new, more infectious strain of the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19 that has bubbled up from the U.K., which has led many countries to issue travel bans.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Monday that Delta Air Lines Inc. DAL, +3.31%, and British Airways have agreed to require passengers show a negative COVID-19 test before boarding U.K. flights to New York City.
