The United States surpassed 19 million coronavirus cases Sunday, figures from Johns Hopkins University showed, adding one million new cases in less than a week.

The US recorded 165,151 new cases in 24 hours at 8:30 pm (0130 GMT Monday), the Baltimore-based institution said, bringing the overall total to 19,107,675 cases.

The grim new milestone comes just six days after the US crossed the 18 million case threshold.

The US also has a total of 333,069 virus-related deaths. Both the caseload and death toll are by far the highest in the world.

Coronavirus cases have been surging at an alarming rate in the US in recent months. The world’s largest economy has added at least one million new cases per week since early November, according to an AFP tally of Johns Hopkins data.

And on Saturday, Johns Hopkins calculated that one in 1,000 Americans have died of COVID-19.

More than a million Americans have received the first dose of their COVID-19 vaccines, a milestone in the biggest immunization drive in US history, but officials admitted the pace of rollout was slipping behind schedule.

Additionally, the vaccines will not help the current surge in cases.

Top US government scientist Anthony Fauci warned earlier Sunday that the worst of the pandemic may be yet to come, driving the country to a “critical point” as holiday travel spreads the coronavirus.

© 2020 AFP