US passes 30 million Covid cases

The United States has surpassed 30 million confirmed cases of coronavirus since the start of the pandemic, according to a tally.

It comes within two weeks of the country marking an entire year of the pandemic, and measures put in place to control the virus in all 50 states and US territories.

As of Thursday morning, the number of infections from Covid was 30,011,551 and counting, according to Johns Hopkins University, while the number of fatalities was 545,282.

Although cases are lower than in the first week of January, when an average of 250,000 infections were reported each day, current infections continue to be above 50,000.

The seven day rolling average for cases across the country, as per the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), is 56,225 cases a day for the past week.

Read more:

• White House news live: Kamala Harris to lead border crisis response

• When is Joe Biden’s first press conference?

• Trump and Trump Jr hire lawyer to defend them in Capitol riot lawsuit

• McConnell complains Biden hasn’t spoken to him or invited him to White House since inauguration

• Giuliani could be hit with ‘false statement’ charges in Georgia, report says

An apparent flatlining of infections comes amid a rollout of Covid vaccines, and the loosening of restrictions in Alaska, Arizona and Texas.

As many as 130,473,853 doses of a vaccine have so far been administered into the arms of Americans, according to the CDC, and 85,472,166 people so far have received at least a single dose.

Almost 15 per cent of the US population, or 46,365,515 people, have so far received two doses and are fully vaccinated, according to the CDC.

Dr Anthony Fauci, the chief medical adviser to the US president, warned on Wednesday that the country was yet to “turn a corner” with current infection levels.

“We do have a lot of challenges in front of us with regard to the high level of daily infections, yesterday being 54,974,” said Dr Fauci. “When you're at that level, I don't think you can declare victory and say you've turned the corner.”

The infectious diseases expert added that the US would be able to turn the page on the pandemic when infection levels of 0.0.5 per cent are reported — as seen in those fully vaccinated.

“That's extremely low. That's where we want to be. When as a country we are at that level, we will have turned the corner,” he added.

The 30 million milestone follows the marking of 20 million US cases of Covid in January, and the 10 million milestone in November.