But it took just 10 days to reach 2.2 million cases in 2021, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
And new infections, hospitalizations and deaths continue to increase.
“We are in a terrible situation,” said Dr. Ashish Jha, dean of Brown University School of Public Health.
“We know how to slow the spread of the virus. We need mask orders. We need people who really stay at home and avoid internal meetings.”
But officials say many Americans did the opposite during the holidays, meeting with friends or relatives. The consequences are now becoming more evident in crowded hospitals across the country.
A more deadly pace than 2020
More than 27,000 new deaths from Covid-19 were reported in the first 10 days of 2021 alone, according to data from Johns Hopkins.
At that rate, more people could die from Covid-19 in January than in any other month of this pandemic. December had a record 77,431 deaths due to Covid-19.
On Saturday, the United States suffered 3,655 new deaths from Covid-19, along with 269,623 new infections, according to Johns Hopkins.
In Arizona, which has been hit hard, the crisis will worsen, said Joe K. Gerald, an associate professor at the University of Arizona’s Zuckerman College of Public Health.
“We must expect to establish new records of cases, hospitalizations and deaths in the coming weeks. Political action is urgently needed to mitigate the worst possible outcome, ”wrote Gerald.
“If it brings together a foothold, it will accelerate, lengthen and deepen the Arizona outbreak,” said Gerald.
The number of victims may worsen as more hospitals fill up.
There were 129,229 Covid-19 patients in U.S. hospitals on Sunday, according to the COVID Screening Project – the sixth highest number on record. It was the 40th consecutive day that Covid-19 hospitalizations in the US remained above 100,000.
“So, all these individuals are going in cars and trains and planes coming home across the country right now.”
CNN medical analyst and emergency physician Dr. Leana Wen echoed that statement, saying to CNN’s Ana Cabrera on Sunday: “Individuals who have not worn masks or social distance on Capitol Hill are also likely not following these guidelines when they return to their communities . “
“And it is very likely that they are engaging in other risky behaviors and potentially spreading the coronavirus across the country, wherever they come from,” she said. “I hope that everyone who participated in these events will come back, quarantine and take the test.”
‘Our most dangerous moment’
In Kentucky, Governor Andy Beshear said his state was seeing a “real and significant increase in cases and in our rate of positivity at people gatherings around the holiday.”
“This sudden increase that we are in now is at least double the rate, the severity, of the previous peaks that we saw,” said the governor on Friday. “This is our most dangerous time.”
Hospitalizations are rising in Texas, where a record number of patients with Covid-19 were reported for the seventh consecutive day on Saturday. At least 13,935 patients have been hospitalized in the state, according to the Texas Department of Health Services.
There were 7,497 Covid-19 patients in Florida hospitals on Sunday, according to the Florida Health Administration Agency. There are about 3,000 more patients than those hospitalized in the state about a month ago, on December 12, when the AHCA reported 4,343 hospitalizations.
And California set two new records on Saturday – the highest number of reported deaths in one day, 695, and the highest number of Covid-19 patients in intensive care units – 4,939. On Sunday, the state recorded nearly 50,000 new cases and 468 deaths.
“The speed with which we are reaching dark milestones for COVID-19 deaths and cases is a devastating reflection of the immense spread that is occurring across the county,” said Los Angeles County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer.
“The best way to protect ourselves, slow down the spread and stop overburdening our hospitals is to stop participating in any activity that is not absolutely essential,” she said.
“This is not the time to go to the mall or a friend’s house to watch a game of basketball or football.”
Biden team announces plan to increase vaccine launch
Meanwhile, the launch of the Covid-19 vaccine in the country “is absolutely not working as intended,” said Dr. Megan Ranney, a medical analyst at CNN and an emergency physician.
“We have three times more doses that were distributed to the states than were actually received in arms,” she said. “We have to do something different and we have to do something different now.”
But it can also be risky, because Pfizer / BioNTech and Moderna vaccines require two doses administered weeks apart to be about 95% effective, and vaccine manufacturing has not increased as quickly as many experts expected.
The plan is a breach of Trump’s administration strategy, which has withheld vaccine doses to ensure that second doses are available.
Dr. Celine Gounder, a member of Biden’s coronavirus advisory board, told CNN on Saturday that the new plan aims to “distribute doses as quickly as possible” and simplify distribution.
Authorities do not recommend that patients postpone receiving the second dose, she said. People should still plan to receive the second dose of the Pfizer vaccine 21 days after the first dose, and the Modern vaccine 28 days after the first dose.
“As long as there are no manufacturing flaws, we are confident that the vaccine supply will be there when people return for their second dose,” said Gounder.
Ranney said he believed the plan “makes sense”, saying the United States needs to “rethink how we take the doses we have and put them in people’s arms”.
“Time is absolutely essential,” she said. But she also emphasized that people need to follow the FDA-approved two-dose regimen.
Asked about the plan, Wen said she supports any effort to speed up vaccination, “but we should also look at where the bottleneck is.”
“At the moment, the problem is not so much the supply, but actually the last kilometer of getting (vaccines) from the distribution sites to, in fact, the arms of people,” she said. “If we have more offers, that will not solve the right problem.”
Wen also said that each individual who received the first dose would be guaranteed a second dose in a timely manner, as this is how clinical trials are conducted.
If there is not enough vaccine in reserve for people to receive their second doses, she said, “I think it could really fuel the vaccine’s hesitation and further undermine public confidence in these vaccines.”
CNN’s Miguel Marquez, Hollie Silverman, Christina Maxouris, Chuck Johnston, Kay Jones, Cheri Mossburg, Lauren Mascarenhas, Jason Hanna and Dakin Andone contributed to this report.