It’s the highest daily number of cases in the U.S. since the pandemic began.
A pandemic of the novel coronavirus has now killed more than 544,000 people worldwide.
Over 11.8 million people across the globe have been diagnosed with COVID-19, the disease caused by the new respiratory virus, according to data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. The actual numbers are believed to be much higher due to testing shortages, many unreported cases and suspicions that some governments are hiding the scope of their nations’ outbreaks.
Since the first cases were detected in China in December, the United States has become the worst-affected country, with more than 2.9 million diagnosed cases and at least 131,480 deaths.
Latest headlines:
- US total case count nears 3 million
- US sets another record with over 60,000 new cases in a day
- How it started and how to protect yourself: Coronavirus explained
- What to do if you have symptoms: Coronavirus symptoms
- Tracking the spread in the U.S. and worldwide: Coronavirus map
Here is how the news is developing today. All times Eastern.
3:30 a.m.: US sets another record with over 60,000 new cases in a day
More than 60,000 new cases of COVID-19 were identified in the United States on Tuesday, according to a count kept by Johns Hopkins University.
It’s the first time the United States has reached or crossed the 60,000 threshold of newly diagnosed cases in a 24-hour reporting period.
Tuesday’s caseload shattered the country’s previous record set on July 2, when more than 54,000 new cases were identified.
The national total currently stands at 2,996,098 diagnosed cases with at least 131,480 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins. The cases include people from all 50 U.S. states, Washington, D.C., and other U.S. territories as well as repatriated citizens.
By May 20, all U.S. states had begun lifting stay-at-home orders and other restrictions put in place to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus. The day-to-day increase in cases then hovered around 20,000 for a couple of weeks before shooting back up and crossing 50,000 for the first time last week.
Many states have seen a rise in infections in recent weeks, with some — including Arizona, California and Florida — reporting daily records.
