After a brief lull in new coronavirus infections and related deaths, new cases surged past the 50,000 mark in the United States Tuesday.
With 54,008 new cases reporting in the last 24 hours, the national total increased to 7858344, as per to Johns Hopkins University’s latest data.
This is more than 30 percent of the figures recorded in the previous day.
With 824 deaths reported nationally in the last 24 hours, the total number of COVID casualties in the U.S. increased to 215910.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said Tuesday that the ongoing efforts to develop a Covid-19 vaccine are “on a really good track.”
“A couple of the vaccines are very close to getting some sort of information,” Fauci said during a call with the Governors Tuesday, referring to vaccines being tested by Moderna and Pfizer.
“We’re getting to the point where we’re almost being able to look at the first look at the data, which is a predetermined thing done by the data and safety monitoring board,” the country’s leading infectious disease expert added.
Johnson & Johnson had put on hold a vaccine trial earlier this week.
Speaking in the same conference call, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar reminded the governors of the October 16 deadline for states to provide the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention with a vaccine distribution plan.
Utah Governor Gary Herbert announced strict lockdown rules after revealing that the state is experiencing “one of the worst outbreaks in the country.”
Virginia Governor Ralph Northam and his wife tested positive for coronavirus, forcing dozens of his staff members to go on quarantine.
A new surge in cases prompted New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham to announce rollback of the state’s economic reopening partially.
As the news of COVID infections in the University of Florida football team broke, the university authorities suspended all football activities.
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