The United States sped past another grim milestone Saturday with more than 16 million people diagnosed with COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic, according to tracking information from Johns Hopkins University.
The country topped the 14 million mark on Dec. 3 and passed 15 million positive cases on Tuesday.
According to the Johns Hopkins tally, there are at least 16,020,646 cases in the U.S., and at least 297,545 deaths from COVID-19.
The numbers come a day after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration authorized Pfizer and BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use. Vaccines could be distributed as quickly as Monday.
With the decision, the United States becomes the sixth country — following the United Kingdom, Bahrain, Canada, Saudi Arabia and Mexico — to clear the vaccine. Other authorizations, including by the European Union, are expected within weeks, the Times reported.
>> FDA authorizes Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine
It took the U.S. 268 days to reach 8 million coronavirus cases, CNN reported. The next 8 million cases occurred over 57 days.
The numbers include more than 1 million cases reported in three states: California, Texas and Florida.
California has 1,537,806 total cases to lead the nation. Texas has 1,396,312, followed by Florida with 1,116,973 cases. Eleven other states have each reported at least 402,000 cases, including Illinois, New York, Ohio, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, Tennessee, North Carolina, Indiana and Arizona.
Click here to see CNN’s complete state-by-state tracker.
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