Deaths in the United States from COVID-19 soared to almost 3,300 on Thursday—about three times the level of a week ago, and over 35% of the total COVID-19 deaths reported in the world. The U.S. total in the first four days of this week is now about 9,200 deaths—double recent weeks. The amount of official new cases also zoomed skyward, reaching 265,000 on Dec. 23, over twice the rate of last week. In the first four days, over 1 million new infections have been identified. Worse, the actual amount of infection has increased even faster, as the Dec. 23 positivity level went over 13% nationwide. (It was averaging 7% last week.) That is, since there’s a higher percentage of those who are getting tested actually being infected, there may be over double the amount of cases, but infections may have increased three or four times.
To add insult to injury, 19 testing sites in New York and New Jersey were closed down, not for lack of tests, but due to the lack of available staffing. And even though New York City is reporting massive infections in jails and homeless shelters, there are many other states with higher positivity levels than New York—led by Kansas, Vermont, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
