COVID-19 cases going up, up, up in Washington, USA

The coronavirus pandemic continues its surge throughout the United States.

In Washington state, new cases continued to exceed 1,000 cases daily. Through mid-afternoon Sunday, another 1,320 coronavirus cases were confirmed in Washington, bringing the total number of diagnoses to 117,331, including 4,239 deaths, according to the state Department of Health (DOH). At least 8,803 people have been hospitalized in the state due to the virus. Last Wednesday (Oct. 4), health officials reported 1,469 new coronavirus cases -- a daily record for the state -- and 16 more deaths in Washington on Wednesday.

The pandemic reached a dire milestone Wednesday (Oct. 4) when the number of new U.S. infections topped 100,000 a day for the first time, continuing a resurgence that showed no sign of slowing. The record 104,004 cases was reached a day after the deeply divided nation went to the polls to choose between President Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden, an election widely seen as a choice between fully reopening the economy and aggressively quelling the outbreak.

USA Surpasses 10 Million
Confirmed Coronavirus Cases

It took only 10 days to go from 9 million to 10 million COVID-19 cases - the shortest time yet between 1 million confirmed cases in the United States. The USA is the first nation to surpass 10 million cases, and has recorded more than 100,000 new cases for five consecutive days through Sunday. The U.S. also leads the world with more than 237,000 deaths related to COVID-19.

Below is a list of each millionth case surpassed. The first case was reported January 22.

• 1 million: 97 days (April 28)
• 2 million: 44 days (June 6)
• 3 million: 27 days (July 8 )
• 4 million: 15 days (July 23)
• 5 million: 17 days (Aug. 9)
• 6 million: 22 days (Aug. 31)
• 7 million: 25 days (Sept. 25)
• 8 million: 21 days (Oct. 16)
• 9 million: 14 days (Oct. 30)
• 10 million: 10 days (Nov. 9)

Smartwatches Might
Detect Next Outbreak

A new study by scientists at Scripps Research describes a tool that could help public health officials spot and contain COVID-19 outbreaks...your smartwatch! One in five Americans owns a wearable device. Scripps scientists found that combining symptoms with wearable device data from devices such as Fitbit or Apple Watch predicted whether a person had COVID-19 better than either input on its own. That makes these popular devices a potential way to track the scope and spread of the pandemic, they said.