US Adds 1 Million New Coronavirus Cases in Just 5 Days

In the first five days of December, the U.S. added over 1 million new coronavirus cases. According to Johns Hopkins University data, there have been over 14.6 million confirmed cases in the U.S. since the first cases were recorded in January. Over 282,100 Americans have died from complications of the coronavirus as of Sunday evening.

Between Tuesday, Dec. 1 and Saturday, Dec. 5, 1,000,882 new cases were reported in the U.S., reports CNN. In the 13 hours on Sunday between midnight and 1 p.m. ET, 53,574 new cases were added, and 327 deaths were recorded. The numbers show that the surge seen in November will continue into December. Over the last week, the U.S. averaged 182,633 daily new cases. On Friday, the U.S. recorded 227,885 new cases, the highest one-day total during the pandemic.

"We're seeing day-by-day increasing numbers of patients with COVID-19, both those who are a little bit sick and those who are really sick," Dr. Megan Ranney, a CNN medical analyst and the director of Brown University's Brown-Lifespan Center for Digital Health, said Saturday. "As that happens, our hospitals are filling up, and our workers are getting sick. Our floors are short on techs, on respiratory therapists, on nurses." Ranney said the U.S. is "on the verge of being in a crisis state."

Experts believe the situation will only worsen as the impact of Thanksgiving travel takes shape and hospitals begin to reach capacity. "Every single day, thousands more people are getting this virus, and we know that means that in a few days, in a week, hundreds of people are going to be coming to the hospital and hundreds of people are going to die," Dr. Shirlee Zie, associate director of hospital medicine for Hennepin Healthcare in Minneapolis, told CNN. She noted that people might become "numb" to the numbers, but "ever number is somebody that [health care workers] have to look at and say, 'I'm sorry there's nothing more I can do for you.'"

The Food and Drug Administration has scheduled a hearing Thursday to discuss Pfizer's vaccine for the virus, reports ABC News. Moderna's vaccine will be discussed on Dec. 17. Both companies said their vaccines are over 90% effective in preventing trial participants from contracting the coronavirus. "If things are on track, the advisory committee goes well; I believe we could see FDA authorization within days," Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said on ABC's This Week Sunday."But it's going to go according to FDA gold-standard processes... and I'm going to make sure it does."