US COVID-19 Cases Reach 20 Million in 2020

Cumulative Infection Count from Last Year on New Year's Day
Over 75,000 Deaths in December Alone
Vaccine Distribution Started but Vaccination Delayed

[Asia Economy New York=Correspondent Baek Jong-min] On the first day of the new year 2021, a gloomy news arrived that the cumulative number of confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) in the United States surpassed 20 million. Since the statistics are from the day before, it means that 20 million infections occurred throughout 2020.

COVID-19 Infection Status in the United States as Reported by Johns Hopkins University

According to CNN, on the 1st (local time), Johns Hopkins University reported that the cumulative number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the United States up to the previous day was 20,007,149. On December 31, the last day of 2020, 227,315 new cases were confirmed.

COVID-19 infections in the United States have increased explosively since October, following the first wave from January 20, when the first case was reported, through the first surge in March-April and the second surge in July-August. More than 200,000 people have been infected daily.

About 24% of the world's cumulative COVID-19 cases, totaling 83,718,625, occurred in the United States.

The cumulative death toll in the United States was 346,043. Particularly, the most severe damage occurred in December, when vaccine distribution began. The number of COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. in December was 77,500.

Despite the spread of infections and deaths, COVID-19 vaccination in the United States has not been progressing rapidly.

According to CNN, more than 12.4 million vaccine doses have been distributed in the United States, but only 2.7 million doses have been administered. This has led to criticism that while efforts focused on vaccine development, measures for vaccination administration were insufficient.

The discovery of variant COVID-19 infections, which started in the United Kingdom, is also a problem. After Colorado, variant COVID-19 infections have been confirmed in California and Florida. The variant COVID-19 is known to have a transmission rate 70% higher than the original COVID-19.

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