The U.S. death toll from the novel coronavirus has surpassed 145,000, and the number of cases now has topped 4 million, as transmission surges around the country, according to news reports.
Total nursing home resident deaths from COVID-19, meanwhile, hit 38,518, as of the week of July 12, according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. That is more than one-quarter of total U.S. deaths, a percentage which could be significantly higher, according to some analysts. Total COVID-19 confirmed cases among residents reached 142,231 for the same time period, CMS reported.
The virus has accelerated during these summer months, The Washington Post reported. It took just 15 days to go from 3 million confirmed cases to 4 million. That compares to 45 days — from April 28 to June 1 — for the virus to go from 1 million cases to 2 million. The jump to 3 million then took 27 days.
So-called hot-spot states are ratcheting up the virus counts and driving up cases in long-term care facilities as a result. According to a Kaiser Family Foundation report, long-term care cases in hotspot states increased at more than four times the rate as non-hot-spot states over a 14-day period.
