1,000 More Coronavirus Deaths In The Past Day, CDC Says

By Matthew S. Schwartz

Published August 23, 2020 at 5:39 PM EDT

People gather for a picnic on a hillside overlooking Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles during a game Saturday. Spectators are currently not allowed to attend Major League Baseball games in order to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

The number of confirmed coronavirus deaths in the U.S. continues to climb.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as of Sunday there have been 175,651 lives lost to the virus and 5.64 million total cases. The death count rose by just over a thousand from the day before, the CDC reported.

The more than 45,000 new cases in the past day was down 39% from the daily record of 74,818 new cases recorded on July 24, according to CDC figures. But it's still roughly twice as high than daily cases during the first few months of the pandemic.

New polling out on Sunday shows these numbers are increasingly being viewed through a partisan lens. According to a CBS News/YouGov poll, 64% of Republicans say that U.S. deaths from the coronavirus are lower than reported, compared to 36% among all voters.

Of those polled, 73% of Republicans believe that the U.S. response to the coronavirus is going well, versus 38% for all voters. More than half of Republicans said the number of U.S. deaths from the coronavirus was acceptable, compared to 10% among Democrats and 33% among Independents.

Although health and government officials are still urging people to be vigilant, American life is slowly flirting with a return to normal — or at least the new normal. On Friday, theaters in many states began showing the first new movie since cinemas closed in the spring. Unhinged, starring Russell Crowe, earned $4 million this weekend playing in 1,823 venues, according to Variety .The biggest ticket sales came from drive-in movie theaters in California, Variety reported.