U.S. tops 77,000 new COVID-19 cases in 1 day, blowing past previous record

(Image credit: Mark Felix/AFP /AFP/Getty Images)

published 17 July 2020

The U.S. hit a new single-day record for COVID-19 infections on Thursday: 77,217, by Reuters' count, and more than 75,600, according to The New York Times. The previous record, about 69,000, was set last Friday. The seven-day average of daily infections is now above 63,000, from about 22,200 a month ago. The death toll on Thursday, 969, was the highest since June 10, and Florida, Texas, and South Carolina all had their biggest one-day increases. Other states that have broken their single-day fatality records this week are Alabama, Arizona, Utah, Oregon, Hawaii, and Montana. Texas and Arizona are bringing in refrigerated trucks to store bodies as their morgues fill up.

More than half of U.S. states now require wearing a mask in public — the governors of Colorado and Arkansas issued mask orders Thursday, while Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) sued Atlanta for recommending residents wear masks. The death rate is rising after steadily falling for weeks, but the U.S. never dipped below its months-long plateau of about 20,000 cases a day after its first peak, Dr. Anthony Fauci told Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg on Thursday. "What I think we need to do, and my colleagues agree, is we really almost need to regroup, call a timeout — not necessarily lock down again, but say that we've got to do this in a more measured way," Fauci said. "We've got to get our arms around this and we've got to get this controlled."

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.

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