The United States has surpassed 10 million cases of covid-19 and infections are on the rise in 43 states. But there is good news with a vaccine

(CNN) – A weekend of record numbers led the United States to surpass 10 million coronavirus infections. And the pace continues to increase.

As of Monday, 43 states have reported at least 10 percent more new cases of COVID-19 than last week, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

And the rate of new infections continues to outperform the test rate.

The average daily number of new cases has skyrocketed by 34% in the past week, but testing has only increased by 7.41% in the past week, according to data from the Covid Tracking Project.

“We absolutely need more evidence. Cases are increasing faster than test rates, “said Dr. Rochelle Walensky, a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.

According to the Johns Hopkins University case count in the United States, there have been at least 10,018,278 cases of coronavirus in the country; at least 237,742 people have died from the coronavirus.

As hospitalizations and deaths continue to rise, there is good news on the vaccine front.

A vaccine can be 90% effective

On Monday, pharmaceutical company Pfizer said early data shows its COVID-19 vaccine is over 90 percent effective.

More than 43,000 volunteers had received two doses of the vaccine or a placebo.

Pfizer examined the first 94 confirmed cases of Covid-19 among the more than 43,000 volunteers who received two doses of the vaccine or a placebo. Less than 10% of coronavirus cases occurred in participants who received the vaccine. More than 90% of the infections seen in the study involved people who received a placebo. Pfizer said the vaccine provided protection seven days after the second dose and 28 days after the initial dose of the vaccine. The ultimate goal is to reach 164 confirmed cases of coronavirus infection. More information in the link of our profile

Pfizer said it plans to seek emergency use authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration shortly after the volunteers were monitored for two months after receiving their second dose of the vaccine, as required by the FDA.

This request could be made within the third week of November.

Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said the vaccine has shown no safety concerns so far.

“But we have to wait until the results are available,” Bourla told CNN medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

It’s unclear exactly when the vaccine might be ready for most Americans. But when it is, “the vaccine will be freely available to all American citizens,” Bourla said.

‘Pouring Gasoline on the Fire’

While the United States awaits a vaccine, the coronavirus is raging at levels never seen before during the pandemic.

The United States has recorded an average of 108,737 new ovid-19 cases per day in the past week, a new record, according to Johns Hopkins.

The highest number of infections ever reported in one day was Saturday, with 128,412 new cases.

“In the past week, about 23 states in all regions of the country have reported record (new) cases,” Walensky said.

“Mortality rates are high and actually represent case counts from two to three weeks ago. So that’s when we have case counts between 60,000 and 70,000. So you can imagine what will happen in the next few weeks,” he added.

MIRA: The United States is approaching 10 million coronavirus cases

And 19 states reported record Covid-19 hospitalizations over the weekend, according to the Covid Tracking Project.

Dr Megan Ranney, MD, said the United States “is heading for the worst pandemic.”

“We’re going to see all these little epidemics across the country, cross and mixed,” Ranney said.

“It will be a bit like putting gasoline on a fire,” he said.