US hits record-high 80,000 average daily COVID-19 cases

WASHINGTON - The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Monday reported a record-high 80,000 average daily increase of COVID-19 cases in the country, a new record of average daily cases since the onset of the pandemic.

The seven-day average daily cases and deaths have been on a rise since late September, and stood at 80,800 and 826, respectively, as of Monday, CDC data showed.

The CDC reported 77,398 new cases and 451 new deaths on Sunday. The country's single-day COVID-19 case count topped nearly 100,000 on Friday, setting the highest single-day number of cases recorded around the world.

The new record number, which was 99,750, surpassed the previous daily record held by India, which reported 97,894 coronavirus cases in a single day on Sept 17.

The United States has recorded more than 9.26 million confirmed COVID-19 cases and over 231,300 deaths as of Monday afternoon, according to the real-time count kept by Johns Hopkins University.

It took only 14 days for the country to add one million new cases from 8 million to 9 million, the fastest rate since the pandemic began.

Anthony Fauci, the US government's leading infectious disease expert, said the country is in a terrible position to face the coming months of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"We're in for a whole lot of hurt. It's not a good situation," Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told The Washington Post on Friday.

"All the stars are aligned in the wrong place as you go into the fall and winter season, with people congregating at home indoors. You could not possibly be positioned more poorly," he said.