The United States reached two million reported cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday.
Though some countries are close to the one million mark, the US is the only nation to not only surpass that mark, but double it.
Just before midnight on Wednesday, Johns Hopkins University’s world map of coronavirus cases put the US at 2,000,464 confirmed cases. The death toll in the US is 112,924.
Brazil has the next highest number of cases with 772,416 confirmed infections.
The United States reached two million reported cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday. People wait to be tested at a drive-thru site in Pacoima, California, on Wednesday
Earlier on Wednesday it was reported that nine states are seeing spikes in the number of people who have been hospitalized for COVID-19 since Memorial Day as Arizona’s health department told hospitals to activate coronavirus emergency plans in preparation for a potential surge in new cases.
Coronavirus hospitalizations have been increasing in at least nine states – mostly in the south and south-west of the country – over the past two weeks.
Arizona, Texas, North Carolina and Utah are among those that have seen record spikes in hospitalizations since the coronavirus pandemic broke out in mid-March.
South Carolina, parts of California, Oregon, Arkansas and Mississippi have also seen an uptick in the number of people being hospitalized.
The increase in hospitalizations in those nine states occurred as other states reopened and large gatherings were held across the country over the Memorial Day weekend.
All of those states, apart from Mississippi, are now virus hotspots after also seeing increases in the number of infections in the past week.
The uptick, which could lead authorities to reimpose or tighten public health restrictions, complicates efforts to reopen the economy that has been devastated by stay-at-home orders that were in place across much of the US.
Louisiana and Arizona have seen the number of deaths increase by more than 30 per cent in the last week compared to the previous seven days, according to a Reuters analysis of data from the COVID Tracking Project.
Ohio and Florida saw fatal cases increase by more than 15 per cent and Indiana saw deaths go up by seven per cent in a week.
Michigan also recorded a spike in deaths – up 53 per cent – after the state reported 240 probable deaths on June 5.
Arizona recorded an increase of more than 90 per cent in new cases in the week ending June 7 compared with the previous seven days, according to a Reuters analysis of data from The COVID Tracking Project.
Michigan saw a 158 per cent increase in new cases last week due mainly to the state reporting 5,000 probably cases on June 5.
Arkansas, Utah, New Mexico and Massachusetts all saw weekly increases of more than 40 per cent and new cases in Florida, Arkansas, South Carolina and North Carolina all rose by more than 30 per cent in the past week.
In New Mexico, about half of the new cases were from one prison in Otero County, state health officials said.
Utah said at least 287 of the state’s 2,269 new cases were tied to an outbreak at a meat processing plant in Cache County.
Florida attributed its increase to more testing, while the other states have not commented on the increase in cases.
New cases in Texas were up 19 per cent in a week, according to the analysis.
Michigan’s cases soared more than 150 per cent last week due to the state including nearly 5,000 probable infections.
The increases comes after all 50 states at least partially lifted coronavirus lockdown measures last month.
Some of the new cases are linked to better testing but many stem from loosened public health restrictions that have allowed people to gather in groups and go inside stores to shop.
Health officials believe other cases have been passed along by people not following social-distancing recommendations.
The number of new infections in the first week of June rose 3 per cent in the US, the first increase after five weeks of declines.
Infectious disease experts have warned that large protests held in major US cities after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis two weeks ago could touch off a new outbreak of the disease.
Officials have said it is too soon to see whether cases will also spike in the wake of the protests.