US Sets Alarming New Single-Day Record

More than 77K new cases were reported Thursday
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 17, 2020 6:13 AM CDT
US Shatters Single-Day Infection Record
Registered nurse Army Capt. Christa Angelotti, with the Urban Augmentation Medical Task Force, sets up a patient board inside a wing at United Memorial Medical Center, Thursday, July 16, 2020, in Houston.   (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

On June 24, the US set a record with 37,000 new coronavirus cases reported in a single day. On July 8, the record was set with just over 60,000 new cases. Thursday's total was 77,255, which is by far the highest one-day total recorded in the US or any other country, CNN reports. The number of COVID-19 cases detected in the US now stands at over 3.5 million, including more than 138,000 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker. States that broke their single-day records Thursday included Nebraska, Utah, and Oregon. South Carolina, Florida, and Texas reported record numbers of coronavirus-related deaths, per Washington Post,

Thursday's alarming total marks the 11th time in a month that the record for single-day infections has been broken. The previous record was set last Friday, with 68,216 new coronavirus cases. The New York Times notes that Thursday's total includes more than 5,000 cases in Bexar County, Texas, where there had been a backlog in reporting. In Houston, an Army team is preparing to take over the COVID-19 wing of a hospital, and Phoenix authorities have ordered portable coolers because morgues are running out of space, the AP reports. In an interview with Mark Zuckerberg on Facebook on Thursday, Dr. Anthony Fauci said the US needs "to regroup, call a timeout—not necessarily lock down again, but say that we’ve got to do this in a more measured way." "We've got to get our arms around this and we’ve got to get this controlled," he said. (More coronavirus stories.)

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