On the afternoon of Jan. 23, the United States officially recorded a total of 25 million COVID-19 cases. This alarming number shines a grim light on how the U.S has failed in several ways to stop the spread of the virus.

It’s been said that about 7.6% of the population has contracted COVID-19. The virus has claimed 414,000 lives, which is one death every 800 people in the United States.

Since the end of 2020, the U.S was around 20 million cases, and with the recent holiday surge of cases, the nation managed to record 5 million more cases in just the first three weeks. With the record for most daily cases being around 300,000, it’s easy to get scared at the astounding rate at which these cases are increasing.

With a new strand of the virus appearing in Britain, people began to panic and tried to quickly get their holiday vacations over with. This was a massive factor in the huge surge of infection in the United States.

It could have also led to many more so-called long haulers in hospitals since the new strand was unpredictable and could’ve lasted longer in patients.

Some epidemiologists say that the real number of infection numbers could be much larger than the official tally of these cases. More of those cases would appear in metropolitan areas.

Despite these scary statistics, doctors are working extremely hard to improve the vaccines’ efficiency and availability. The best thing to do at this moment is to wear your mask, stay at home, and maintain social distancing (at least six feet).