COVID-19 infections spread rapidly as officials race to distribute vaccine

The United States added 1 million coronavirus infections in just four days, bringing the cumulative total of cases to over 16 million on Saturday, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. The country has recorded over 215,000 cases each day since Tuesday, Dec. 8.

In addition, there were 3,309 new deaths on Friday alone, passing the previous record of 3,054 deaths set on Wednesday.

Areas concentrated in Southern California, Arizona, Indiana, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Rhode Island are just some of the states that have seen a substantial increase in coronavirus cases over a 14-day period and have remained elevated, according to The New York Times coronavirus heat map.