A person died every 33 seconds due to COVID-19 in the US last week

United States continues to be the hardest-hit country by coronavirus, pinning the hopes of saving lives on vaccines.

Last week, someone died from coronavirus every 33 seconds in the country. In the week leading up to December 20, over 18,000 people died due to COVID-19. This was up 6.7 per cent from the previous week, and hit a record high, Reuters reported.

Health officials had warned people against travelling during the Christmas/New Year holiday season in the country. However, 3.2 million people were screened at airports in the country over the weekend - Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

Due to Thanksgiving celebrations, infections rose sharply and hospitals got overwhelmed quickly. Many experts fear that another surge would immensely pressurise hospitals and healthcare workers.

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The US recently approved emergency authorisation of two COVID-19 vaccines - Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech, and the inoculation of at-risk groups across the country has begun.

Even then, it could be months before the vaccination starts to affect the coronavirus toll. Last week, the number of new coronavirus cases fell by 1 per cent to nearly 1.5 million.

In terms of states - Tennessee, California, and Rhode Island had the most number of cases per capita in the US. Iowa, South Dakota, and Rhode Island were the hardest hit in terms of deaths per capita in the country.

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Across the country, 11.3 per cent tests were positive for the virus, down from 12 per cent from a week before, as revealed by data from the COVID Tracking Project, a volunteer based coronavirus project.

Out of the 50 states in the US, 31 showed a positive test rate of 10 per cent or higher. Iowa and Idaho had the highest rates with over 40 per cent.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), positivity rates above 5 per cent are concerning for it reveals that a lot of unreported cases in the community continue to spread the virus among people.