The United States reported more than 99,000 new cases of COVID-19 Friday, setting a new worldwide mark for most new cases in a single day. It comes as many states are reporting record numbers of cases daily during this fall surge, something experts predicted could happen as the weather turns colder and more people spend time indoors.
A Johns Hopkins University tracker showed the U.S. had 99,321 confirmed new cases of the coronavirus Friday. Other outlets that independently track the numbers put it at more than 100,000 while some had it a little lower. It eclipsed the previous record of 88,521 set on Thursday.
The previous one-day high was set by India with close to 98,000 cases on Sept. 16, according to Johns Hopkins. But while the U.S. has seen an increase in cases over the past month, India's numbers have fallen.
The U.S. passed 9 million total cases on Friday, 14 days after reaching 8 million. That's the shortest span for 1 million cases so far during the pandemic.
The COVID Tracking Project said Friday almost 47,000 people were hospitalized with the virus, with 9,400 in intensive care and nearly 2,500 on ventilators.
The U.S. continues to lead the world in deaths related to COVID-19 with nearly 230,000.
The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, often cited by the White House, now projects the U.S. will have an additional 100,000 deaths between now and Jan. 1 if mask usage remains at its current level. That number can be reduced by 1/3 if there is universal mask use.
