The Reuters tally also reveals that the number of Americans with COVID-19 who are currently hospitalized has increased by around 73% over the past 30 days, surpassing the previous record set on July 22.
In addition, new daily COVID-19 infections exceeded 100,000 on Monday for the sixth consecutive day. Hospitalizations are a very important metric of how the outbreak is progressing in the US because they are unrelated to the number of tests conducted.
Reuters’ tally also matches with data being reported by the COVID Tracking Project, which shows that as of Monday, there were 59,000 COVID-19 patients hospitalized across the US.
On Monday, US states reported 1.5 million tests performed and nearly 119,000 new cases, according to the COVID Tracking Project.
The US states with the highest numbers of hospitalized patients are Texas (6,103), Illinois (4,409) and California (3,668), according to Reuters.
Hospital beds in Ohio are also rapidly filling up, with state health officials pleading on Monday for residents to wear masks and engage in social distancing.
“I can’t imagine what January is going to look like if people aren’t willing to make those tough choices,” said Dr. Andy Thomas, chief medical officer at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, the Sandusky Register reported.
Colorado’s intensive care unit (ICU) beds are also rapidly filling up, with 82% of such beds in the state in use and more than 1,000 COVID-19 patients hospitalized as of Monday.
"What is frightening to me is that the community rates continue to increase," said Dr. Connie Savor Price, chief medical officer at Denver Health, 9News reported. "Our surge is about two weeks behind that. So, I'm not seeing any relief anytime soon."
Reuters’ analysis also shows that the US has reported more than a million new cases in the past 10 days, which is the steepest surge in infections across the country since the outbreak there began.
In addition, more than 770,000 new cases were reported in the week that ended on November 10, a 34% increase in the seven-day tally from the preceding week.
