US COVID-19 Infections Reach 5 Million... First Decrease in Time to Increase by One Million

Increase of 1 Million Takes 17 Days
Takes 2 More Days Compared to Previous 15 Days

[Asia Economy New York=Correspondent Baek Jong-min] Although the cumulative number of COVID-19 infections in the United States has surpassed 5 million, the rate of infection spread has slowed for the first time.

COVID-19 Case Trends in the United States (Screenshot from CNN)

On the 9th (local time), Johns Hopkins University reported that the number of COVID-19 patients in the U.S. reached 5.02 million. It took 17 days since surpassing 4 million on the 23rd of last month.

This is two days longer than the 15 days it took to go from 3 million to 4 million. It is the first time that the time taken for the number of COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. to increase by one million has lengthened.

According to the university's data, after the first patient was confirmed in the U.S. on January 20, it took 99 days to exceed 1 million confirmed cases. Then, it took 43 days to reach 2 million, and 28 days to surpass 3 million, showing an accelerating spread. It took only 15 days to break through 4 million, raising concerns.

CNN reported that the number of infections in the U.S. accounts for 25% of the global total. The worldwide number of COVID-19 patients is 19.6 million, with the 20 million mark imminent.

Half of the patients in the U.S. are from five states: California, Florida, Texas, New York, and Georgia. The number of patients in California, Florida, and Texas has exceeded or is close to 500,000. New York, which was an early hotspot, has seen its positive test rate drop to 0.93%, indicating infection control is in place, but the other states still have high spread rates. In particular, Georgia continues to fail in controlling the infection situation, with confirmed cases rapidly increasing.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.