The United States became the first nation worldwide since the pandemic began to surpass 10 million coronavirus infections, according to a Reuters tally on Sunday, as the third wave of the Covid-19 virus surges across the nation.
The grim milestone came on the same day that global coronavirus cases exceeded 50 million.
The US has reported about a million cases in the past 10 days, the highest rate of infections since the nation reported its first coronavirus case in Washington state 293 days ago.
The country reported a record 131,420 Covid-19 cases last Saturday and has reported over 100,000 daily infections five times in the past seven days, according to a Reuters tally.
The US' latest reported seven-day average of 105,600 daily cases, ramped up by at least 29 per cent, is more than the combined average for India and France, two of the worst-affected countries in Asia and Europe.
More than 240,000 Americans have died of Covid-19 since the disease caused by the coronavirus first emerged in China late the previous year.
The daily average of reported new deaths in the US account for one in every 11 deaths reported worldwide each day, according to a Reuters analysis.
The number of reported deaths nationwide climbed by more than 1,000 for a fifth consecutive day last Saturday, a trend last seen in mid-August, according to a Reuters tally.
US President-elect Joe Biden, who spent much of his election campaign criticising President Donald Trump's handling of the pandemic, has pledged to make tackling the pandemic a top priority.
Mr Biden was set to announce yesterday a 13-member coronavirus task force, composed largely of doctors and public health experts, which will be led by previous surgeon-general Vivek Murthy, previous Food and Drug Administration commissioner David Kessler and Yale University professor of public health Marcella Nunez-Smith.
The task force will be charged with developing a blueprint for containing the disease once Mr Biden takes office in January.
"Dealing with the coronavirus pandemic is one of the most important battles our administration will face, and I will be informed by science and by experts," Mr Biden said in a statement yesterday.
He has also said he would, on his first day of office, rescind Mr Trump's decision to freeze funding and withdraw from the World Health Organization (WHO).
Yesterday, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus welcomed efforts to strengthen the Geneva-based body through reform and said that it was looking forward to working closely with Mr Biden's administration.
"We welcome any and all efforts to strengthen this organization not for its own sake, but the sake of the people we serve," Dr Tedros told health ministers at the start of WHO's resumed annual meeting.
Meanwhile, in the US, Utah Governor Gary Herbert declared late on Sunday a new state of emergency to address hospital overcrowding due to a surge of coronavirus cases.
Utah has had 132,621 total confirmed cases and 659 deaths from Covid-19 since the pandemic began.
"These changes are not shutting down our economy, but are absolutely necessary to save lives and hospital capacity," Mr Herbert said on Twitter.
The governor said the entire state was being placed under a mask mandate until further notice, and social gatherings limited to household-only for the next two weeks. All extracurricular activities were being put on hold, he said.
The Midwest remains the hardest-hit region based on the most cases per capita, with North Dakota, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Iowa and Nebraska the top five worst-affected US states.
REUTERS, BLOOMBERG