United States coronavirus cases have crossed the 20 million mark as officials seek to speed up vaccinations and a more infectious variant surfaces in Colorado, California and Florida.

The United States has seen a spike in number of daily Covid-19 fatalities since Thanksgiving with 78,000 lives lost in December. A total of 345,000 have died of Covid-19, or one out of every 950 US residents, since the virus first emerged in China late in 2019.

According to a Reuters report, the United States is averaging 186,000 cases a day, down from a peak in mid-December of over 218,000 new infections each day. Health officials have warned that cases will likely spike again after holiday gatherings.