U.S. sets record with 100,000 new coronavirus cases in 1 day

(Image credit: Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images)

published 5 November 2020

The United States marked a grim milestone on Wednesday, when the country for the first time recorded 100,000 new coronavirus cases in one day.

Minnesota, Indiana, and Maine also reported single-day records on Wednesday, and in the last 14 days, Minnesota's daily case reports have on average increased by 79 percent. For several months, Maine had low transmission rates compared to most other states, but recently cases there have nearly tripled. Wyoming meanwhile has seen its number of new cases go up 80 percent.

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The New York Times notes that Dr. Anthony Fauci, the country's top infectious disease expert, warned in June when there were about 42,000 new cases reported per day that if the pandemic was not reined in, the U.S. would eventually hit 100,000 cases a day. On Friday, he told The Washington Post with winter coming and people gathering indoors, the country "could not possibly be positioned more poorly," and "we're in for a whole lot of hurt."

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

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