On Friday, US crossed 8 million registered coronavirus cases, a record that comes as daily rates are spiking, which specialists say is setting the nation up for a very tough winter.

Johns Hopkins University says the nation has registered more than 8,008,000 cases. That total is likely a vast under-count, mainly because of a low testing capacity early in the Covid-19 crisis.

Perhaps more immediately concerning than Friday’s record is a recent growth in cases per day. Johns Hopkins data shows the nation’s 1 week median of new daily cases has moved above 53K, a rise of more than 55% in just over a month.

The director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Dr. Anthony Fauci has warned that is far too high heading into the end of 2020.