As of Sunday night, more than 12,586,550 people in the United States have been infected with the coronavirus and at least 262,694 have died.

Iran PressAmerica: At least 1,428 new coronavirus deaths and 171,980 new cases were reported in the United States on Nov. 21. 

Over the past week, there has been an average of 170,539 cases per day, an increase of 59 percent from the average two weeks earlier, according to Worldometers.

New York Times database shows that case numbers are spiking across most of the United States, leading to dire warnings about full hospitals, exhausted health care workers, and expanding lockdowns.

As conditions worsened and winter approached, the governors of Iowa and North Dakota ordered residents to wear masks. State leaders have imposed curfews in Ohio and most of California. And with more than a million new cases a week, federal officials urged Americans not to travel for Thanksgiving.

Charts show daily deaths per capita are increasing in 44 states including South Dakota, Montana, Nebraska, Wisconsin, New Mexico, Illinois, Iowa, Guam, Arkansas, Minnesota, Wyoming, Michigan, Indiana, Idaho, and Tennessee.

These states have had the highest growth in newly reported deaths over the last 14 days. 

A year that started out normal — with packed sports arenas, busy airports, and handshake-heavy political campaigning — quickly became defined by the pandemic.

In late February, there were just a few dozen known cases in the United States, most of them linked to travel. But by summer, the virus had torn through every state, infecting more people than the combined populations of Connecticut and Oklahoma. And in the fall, the national death toll exceeded 250,000, more than the population of Richmond, Va.

The US continues to lead the world in infections and deaths.

In no other high-income country — and in only a few countries, period — have political leaders departed from expert advice as frequently and significantly as the Trump administration. President Trump has said the virus was not serious; predicted it would disappear; spent weeks questioning the need for masks; encouraged states to reopen even with large and growing caseloads, and promoted medical disinformation.

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California imposes night time curfew as COVID-19 cases spike

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