According to Johns Hopkins University’s tally, the United States has recorded 16,062,299 cases of coronavirus and at least 297,818 people there have died from the virus.
On Saturday, Johns Hopkins University recorded 219,510 new cases and 2,368 new deaths across all 50 states, the District of Columbia and other US territories, as well as repatriated cases.
Saturday was the seventh day in a row that hospitalizations hit a record high, with 108,487 patients in hospitals around the country, according to the Covid Tracking Project.
The US added an additional 1 million cases in the past four days. It took the nation more than eight months to reach 8 million cases but less than two months to double that, as the number of new cases continues to soar.
That dire new toll comes as a US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advisory committee voted Saturday to recommend the Pfizer and BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine for patients 16 and older. Doses will begin to be rolled out in the coming days.