Daily Covid-19 cases in US surpass 100,000

The fourth wave of Covid-19 in the US may be out of control, a top-ranked economist believes.

On Sunday, the number of novel coronavirus infections in the States jumped by 44% from the preceding week to reach approximately 106,000, leading to a near doubling in the trend rate to about 34%.

That meant that by the end of 2020 the US could be reporting roughly 1.0m new cases each day.

The impact on hospitals of such a rapid and sustained increase in cases could be "disastrous", said Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics.

Last Friday, Oregon announced a range of measures, but "the longer states and cities wait before imposing new controls and restrictions", the more likely that the worst scenarios would come to pass.