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U.S. sees almost 4,000 new COVID-19 deaths, notable rise in cases

A woman is inoculated with a COVID-19 vaccine at the South Park Recreation Center in Los Angeles on Thursday. Photo by Jim Ruymen/UPI
A woman is inoculated with a COVID-19 vaccine at the South Park Recreation Center in Los Angeles on Thursday. Photo by Jim Ruymen/UPI | License Photo

Feb. 12 (UPI) -- New coronavirus cases and deaths across the United States saw a significant increase on Thursday, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

The new data showed three significant national signals -- a rise in cases and deaths Thursday, and far more cases than were originally reported for Wednesday.

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The initial Johns Hopkins data showed fewer than 100,000 new COVID-19 cases nationally for Wednesday, which had marked the fourth straight day below the threshold.

The tracking data now show an addition of almost 175,000 U.S. cases on that day, the most for any day since late January and an anomaly in an otherwise mostly downward trend in cases over the last month.

For Thursday, there were about 105,400 new coronavirus cases nationwide, according to the updated data -- marking the first time since last week that the U.S. case count has topped 100,000 on two consecutive days.

There was also an uptick in coronavirus-related deaths on Thursday -- almost 3,900, according to Johns Hopkins, the highest daily toll in more than a week.

The rise in deaths and cases came on the same day President Joe Biden announced the U.S. government has secured another 200 million doses in its effort to get most people access to a vaccine by the end of the summer.

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Biden made the remarks during a tour of the Viral Pathogenesis Laboratory at the National Institutes of Health, where he also said the lack of transition help from former President Donald Trump's administration has made things tricky in his first few weeks.

"What I didn't realize was just how much of the vaccine we're going to have to actually get produced," Biden said. "It's one thing to have the vaccine. It's another thing to have [medical staff] to put it into people's arms. And it's really turned out to be a gigantic logistical issue for us.

"We were led to believe there was a lot more vaccine available than there was."

Other COVID-19 updates on Friday:

  • Biden will meet at the White House with a group of governors and mayors to discuss his proposed $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, which is advancing through Congress.
  • The president will receive an economic briefing from Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen Friday afternoon before he leaves for Camp David for the weekend.
  • According to new research, only one vaccine dose should be sufficient for people who have previously been infected with the virus.
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