December Smashes Records for Virus Cases as Deaths Near 300,000

(Bloomberg) -- For six of December’s first eight days, the trailing-week average of new coronavirus cases has been at a terrifying peak. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention forecasts the U.S. will surpass 300,000 deaths by Christmas.

Coronavirus is infecting Americans at an ever-increasing clip in the final weeks of 2020. The U.S. recorded more than 213,000 new cases Tuesday, a number roughly equivalent to the population of Des Moines, Iowa. And that trajectory is beginning to show in fatalities: In just more than a week of December, deaths were more than double the rate of the same week in November, according to Covid Tracking Project data.

Infections in the South composed almost a third of new cases, though trajectories are rising across the entire Eastern Seaboard. Twenty-eight states broke single-day records this month.

The numbers are a frightening reminder of the virus’s seemingly limitless ability to grow -- and the wake it leaves. The newest round is challenging hospitals facing staff and bed shortages as they treat a disease more than twice as deadly for Americans as World War I.

Nationally, the U.S. reported 213,498 coronavirus cases Tuesday, according to the Covid Tracking Project. There have been more than 286,000 deaths cumulatively, according to Johns Hopkins University data.

According to Covid Tracking Project data:

• There were 104,600 patients hospitalized with the virus in the U.S., a record for the third consecutive day.
• Ohio, Washington, Alabama and Arizona posted single-day records in new cases Tuesday.

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.