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Six months ago, no one thought COVID-19 existed in the U.S.The first reported case came on Jan. 21. Within 99 days, 1 million Americans became infected.It took just 43 days after that to reach 2 million cases.And 28 days later, the U.S. reached 3 million cases of the novel coronavirus Wednesday. In 35 states, the rate of new cases keeps increasing, threatening to reverse the progress made during weeks of painful shutdowns and stay-at-home orders.The latest numbersThe U.S. has reported at least 131,000 deaths due to the virus, according to Johns Hopkins University.Many Americans have fallen into a false sense of security as states started reopening, abandoning safety measures such as social distancing and wearing face masks, health officials say.While the death rate has generally decl...

Editor’s note: The Salt Lake Tribune is providing free access to critical stories about the coronavirus. Sign up for our Top Stories newsletter, sent to your inbox every weekday morning. To support journalism like this, please donate or become a subscriber. Utah reached two unwanted milestones Wednesday in the coronavirus pandemic, setting a new one-day record for new cases and crossing the 200 mark in the state’s death toll. The state recorded 722 new cases of COVID-19 Wednesday, the Utah Department of Health reported — and seven new fatalities, making the overall death toll 201 Utahns. The state’s epidemiologist, Dr. Angela Dunn, said in a statement that the new cases “further reinforce the need for Utah residents to be taking the appropriate precautions to pr...

The Pennsylvania Department of Health reported 849 new coronavirus cases Wednesday, the second highest one-day total since late May. The health department said the statewide total has risen to 92,148 cases. The new data follows the state reporting 995 new cases Tuesday, the highest one-day number since May 10. Across Pennsylvania, 6,812 deaths have been tied to COVID-19, including 25 new fatalities reported Wednesday, the health department said. More than two-thirds of the state’s coronavirus deaths have occurred in long-term care facilities, such as nursing homes. The number of new cases has risen in the past few weeks. The report today marks the second highest number since May 22 and it’s the third time the state has reported more than 800 new daily cases in the past week. For pers...

This article was produced in partnership with ProPublica, a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive ProPublica's biggest stories as soon as they’re published. HOUSTON — When Karen Salazar stopped by to check on her mother on the evening of June 22, she found her in worse shape than she expected. Her mother, Felipa Medellín, 54, had been complaining about chest pains and fatigue, symptoms that she attributed to a new diabetes treatment she’d started days earlier. Medellín, who had seen a doctor that day, insisted she was fine. But Salazar, 29, noticed that when Medellín lay down, her chest was rising and falling rapidly — as if she couldn’t catch her breath. “I grabbed her hand and I said: ‘I’m sorry. I know you don’t want to go to the hospital, but I’m c...