US becomes first country in world to ‘officially’ hit 100m Covid cases

America has become the first country to officially reach the milestone of 100million Covid infections – in what is likely a vast underestimate.

The latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) show that cumulative US cases hit nine figures on December 21.

India has the second-highest infection count at just 44million, according to the research database OurWorldInData, followed by France at 39million.

But the raw number of cases does not account for population size. When that is factored in, the US ranks just 58th worldwide.

Comparing Covid cases between countries is difficult because of the different testing and data collection approaches.

Only China has carried out more tests than the US — around 9 billion and 900 million, respectively.

But Beijing and places like Russia have been accused of suppressing case numbers to mask the fact that authoritarian regimes have struggled to contain outbreaks.

Dr John Brownstein, an epidemiologist and chief innovation officer at Boston Children’s Hospital, said the US hitting 100million cases was a significant moment.

But he added it was likely a severe undercount because of the huge swathes of Americans who do not test or who are asymptomatic.

Dr Brownstein told ABC: ‘Obviously it’s a milestone that signifies the sheer amount of transmission that has occurred around this virus and the population burden that we have faced.

‘At the same time, we recognize that reported cases are absolutely a massive undercount — at the beginning of the pandemic where testing was nonexistent to the shift to home testing where a significant proportion of cases has gone unreported.

‘I think we know that a large majority of the population has already been infected with COVID,’ Brownstein said. ‘And so, this number only represents a fraction of all the cases. [The milestone] was very likely hit many months ago.’  

The US’ official case number, 100.7m, indicates that around one in three Americans have had the virus at least once.

Yet a CDC study from April 2022 estimated that 60 percent of the country had been infected with the virus. The official case count does not distinguish between repeated infections.

The 100m case mark comes as pandemic policies begin to creep back into daily life in America.

Hundreds of thousands of students across the US will be forced to wear them in class when schools go back today, as controversial mandates make a return.

Despite Covid infection rates plateauing for months, elementary and high schools in New Jersey, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania have made face coverings a condition of entry for students returning from the holidays.

Education officials claim the policy is to prevent a boom in respiratory illnesses after increased mixing during the first normal Christmas and New Year in years. 

But there is little evidence that face masks actually reduce infection rates, and mounting research shows the mandates stunted children’s social development and education, and robbed them of vital immunity to other seasonal bugs like flu and RSV.

The government also announced last week that all passengers from China would be tested upon entry, despite no proof that policy works either.