US Virus Deaths Top 1000 As New Cases Skyrocket

NBC News reports:

The United States has reached a grim milestone as the number of deaths linked to coronavirus passed 1,000 in the country on Thursday, according to a count by NBC News.

The number of reported deaths associated with the disease in the U.S. was at least 1,001 as of Thursday morning, according to that count, and there have been more than 68,000 reported cases. Globally, reported deaths passed 21,000, according to Johns Hopkins University.

The university puts the U.S. death toll even higher than the NBC News count, listing 1,050 as of around 2:30 a.m. ET. Deaths continued to rise in New York, which has been called the epicenter of the epidemic on the U.S. There have been at least 334 deaths linked to the illness caused by the novel coronavirus as of early Thursday.

CNN reports:

“We originally thought that it would be doubling every six to seven days and we see cases doubling every three to four days,” said Dr. Mark Ghaly, secretary of the California Health and Human Services Agency.

There are now more than 65,000 cases of coronavirus across the US. The numbers spiked Wednesday — the deadliest day for reporting of US cases of coronavirus — with 223 deaths reported that day alone. Just four days prior, the death toll stood at 326 people.

To understand the spike in cases, health officials need to increase testing, identify infected people and isolate them while tracing who they have had contact with, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told CNN’s Chris Cuomo on “Cuomo Primetime” Wednesday.

The rise in newly-reported cases can be attributed in part to greatly expanded testing.