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The United States has recorded more than 3,100 COVID-19 deaths in a single day, erasing the record set last spring, as the number of Americans in hospital with the virus eclipsed 100,000 for the first time and that new cases have started to exceed 200,000 a day, according to figures released Thursday.
The three benchmarks in total showed that a country was slipping into crisis, with perhaps the worst yet to come, in part because of the delayed effects of Thanksgiving, when millions of Americans ignored warnings to stay away. home and celebrate only with family members.
Across the United States, the outbreak has inundated hospitals and left nurses and other healthcare workers outnumbered and exhausted.
“The reality is that December and January and February are going to be tough times. I actually believe they are going to be the most difficult time in the history of public health in this country, ”said Dr. Robert Redfield, head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, on Wednesday.
Health officials had warned that the numbers could fluctuate sharply before and after Thanksgiving, as they often do around holidays and weekends. Due to delays in reporting, the numbers often drop, then rise sharply a few days later, as state and local health agencies catch up with the backlog.
Yet deaths, hospitalizations, and cases in the United States have increased fairly steadily for weeks, sometimes breaking records for days.
The grim picture comes as states decide how the vaccine will be distributed when it is federally cleared, as scheduled next week.
States face a deadline on Friday to submit requests for Pfizer vaccine doses and specify where they should be shipped. With vaccine availability expected to be limited until spring, most states should follow the guidelines adopted by the CDC this week that healthcare workers and nursing home patients should be the first to come. line.
But some are considering whether to open the line to other workers they deem essential.
Arizona Governor Doug Ducey has said he wants teachers to be given priority in keeping schools open. Fire groups wrote to the governor of Minnesota this week, asking to be placed in the first group. The Illinois plan gives healthcare workers the highest priority, but also calls for first responders to be among the first group to get vaccinated. Others have difficulty knowing where to place prisoners in the pecking order.
In Nevada, where authorities have stressed the importance of bringing tourists back to the Las Vegas Strip, authorities initially placed residents of nursing homes on the third level for vaccinations, behind police officers, teachers, operators. airport and retail workers. But they said on Wednesday they would revise that plan to comply with CDC guidelines, which are not binding on states.
Colorado’s draft plan, which is under review, places ski resort workers sheltering in nearby accommodations in the second phase of vaccine distribution.
Texas places hospital staff, nursing home workers, and paramedics at the top of the list, followed by ambulatory medical workers, pharmacists, funeral home workers, and school nurses. Nursing home patients did not make the cut for the very first phase.
Keeping health care workers on their feet is essential to deal with the crisis. And nursing home patients have priority because they are very vulnerable to the virus. Patients and staff in nursing homes and other long-term care facilities account for 39% of deaths from COVID-19 in the country.
The American Health Care Association and the National Center for Assisted Living sent a letter to the National Governors Association on Tuesday urging states to include nursing homes and similar institutions in the first round, noting that more than 100,000 residents have died of consequences of COVID-19.
“A one-month delay in getting the vaccine delivered in long-term care facilities could claim the lives of over 10,000 of our residents. The speed with which states can vaccinate our residents has a significant impact on life or death, ”the letter said.
Nationwide, the coronavirus is responsible for more than 270,000 deaths and 14 million confirmed infections.
The United States recorded 3,157 deaths on Wednesday, according to the count kept by Johns Hopkins University. That’s more than the number of people killed on September 11, and it shattered the old mark of 2,603, set on April 15, when the New York metro area was the epicenter of the US outbreak.
The number of people in the hospital also hit a record high on Wednesday, according to the COVID Tracking Project. It has more than doubled in the past month.
Additionally, the number of newly confirmed infections soared to just over 200,000 on Wednesday for the second time in less than a week, according to the Johns Hopkins tally.
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Associated Press editors Geoff Mulvihill in Davenport, Iowa; Jim Anderson in Denver; Jonathan J. Cooper and Terry Tang in Phoenix; Steve Karnowski in Minneapolis; and Tammy Webber in Fenton, Michigan, contributed to this story.
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