US hits 40 million COVID cases as delta variant spreads

(WHEC) — The United States has hit a record high number of COVID cases since the start of the pandemic.

According to the latest NBC News tally, the U.S. has now recorded at least 40 million cases of the coronavirus and more than 651,000 deaths.

Vaccination rates have been slowly increasing since July, but states and territories are nowhere near reaching the 70% fully vaccinated threshold.

The fourth wave was brought on by the delta variant and it’s overwhelming some hospitals. Some hospitals are seeing an average of 100,000 patients a day.