Over 10 Million COVID-19 Cases in the US... Biden Urges "Wear Masks"

1 Million Increase in Ten Days... Spread Accelerates
Biden President-Elect Mentions "Dark Winter" Despite Vaccine Development Hope

[Asia Economy New York=Correspondent Baek Jong-min] The cumulative number of confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) in the United States has surpassed 10 million. President-elect Joe Biden, who rolled up his sleeves to respond to COVID-19, urged people to wear masks regardless of political orientation.

[Image source=Reuters Yonhap News]

On the 9th (local time), Johns Hopkins University announced that the cumulative number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the U.S. reached 10,018,278, with a total of 237,742 deaths.

Considering the U.S. population of 328.2 million (according to the U.S. Census Bureau), this means about 3 out of every 100 people have tested positive for COVID-19.

It took 294 days since the first COVID-19 case for the cumulative cases to exceed 10 million. It took only ten days to surpass 9 million cases.

On the 8th, 105,000 new cases were confirmed. For four consecutive days, more than 100,000 new infections were reported daily. Although this was a decrease compared to 126,000 cases the day before, considering it was a weekend, the possibility of an increase cannot be ruled out.

By state, Texas is approaching the milestone of 1 million cumulative cases with about 992,700 cases. California follows with 970,000 infections, moving toward 1 million cases.

President-elect Biden, who has taken COVID-19 response as a transition task, held a press conference after receiving a briefing from the COVID-19 task force and stated, "I urge you all to wear masks."

He said, "Please do this for yourselves and your neighbors," adding, "Wearing a mask is not a political statement. It is a good way to start uniting the country."

While mentioning the progress in vaccine development by pharmaceutical company Pfizer, Biden said, "We are still facing a dark winter. Bold measures are needed to fight this pandemic."

Biden also appealed to those who did not vote for him to join the fight against the virus. He emphasized, "The election is over," and said, "It is time to end political debates over basic health measures like mask-wearing and social distancing."

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