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U.S. reports more than 83,000 coronavirus cases two days in a row as experts warn of difficult winter

The country reported 83,757 new Covid-19 cases on Friday, passing the last record of roughly 77,300 cases seen on July 16 as the U.S. grappled with outbreaks in Sun Belt states, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University, and the outbreak takes root across the Midwest and hospitalizations rise.

On Saturday, the U.S. reported another 83,718 new coronavirus cases.

Covid-19 cases are now growing “really in all parts of the country,” with particularly high transmission in the Midwest, Jay Butler, the CDC’s deputy director for infectious diseases, told reporters on a conference call on Wednesday.

“Unfortunately, we are seeing a distressing trend here in the United States,” he told reporters on a call. He said the surge is likely due to the arrival of cooler temperatures.

Coronavirus cases grew by 5% or more over the past week in 38 states as of Thursday, according to a CNBC analysis of data compiled by Johns Hopkins University that uses a weekly average to smooth out fluctuations in daily reporting. The nation is now averaging roughly 61,100 new coronavirus cases every day.

“The pandemic is not over,” Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said on Wednesday.

The U.S. conducted more than 1.1 million tests on Thursday and a record 1.2 million tests on Monday, according to data compiled by the Covid Tracking Project

Since Oct. 1, testing has increased by nearly 11%. That compares with a 46% jump in the average daily rate of new infections over that same period, from roughly 42,000 per day to more than 60,000, according to Johns Hopkins data.

With only 11 days until the Nov. 3 election, former Vice President Joe Biden said during Thursday’s presidential debate that America was headed for a “dark winter” with no clear prospect for a Covid-19 vaccine available to a majority of people until the middle of next year.

President Donald Trump was as optimistic as ever, saying the U.S. is “rounding the corner” in the outbreak.

“I don’t think we’re going to have a dark winter at all,” Trump said. “We’re opening up our country, we’ve learned and studied and understand the disease, which we didn’t at the beginning.”

Reference: CNBC