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The United States set three sinister coronavirus records on Thursday as it recorded the highest daily number of coronavirus deaths, highest number of new cases and the number of people admitted to hospital with Covid topped 100,000 for the second consecutive day.
Some 2,879 people have died from the coronavirus, according to Johns Hopkins University, while there have been 217,664 new cases, as senior infectious disease official Dr Anthony Fauci warned that “January is going to be terrible”.
Many states have warned they are running out of intensive care beds, with 100,667 people currently hospitalized with Covid,
The escalating numbers came as California planned to implement a sweeping stay-at-home order in a desperate attempt to control coronavirus infections, and after Joe Biden said he would call on all Americans to wear masks during his first 100 days in power.
Donald Trump was silent on the crisis on Thursday, as the total number of people who died reached 276,366.
The president is due to hold a rally in Georgia, which has seen its highest number of coronavirus cases since August on Saturday. Two Republican senators face the second round of elections in the state in January.
In an interview with Newsweek, Fauci warned that the worst was yet to come in the United States.
“I think January is going to be terrible because you’re going to have the Thanksgiving wave super imposed on the Christmas wave,” Fauci said. “So it is quite conceivable that January will be the worst.”
Fauci, who accepted Biden’s offer to become chief medical adviser, said he expected the data to show a further increase in cases and deaths in mid-December – largely due to Thanksgiving gatherings.
“If you and I travel and then go home and have family dinners, you’re going to see infections two to three weeks from there, then a week later you will see more hospitalizations and two weeks later. , you will see more deaths ”said Fauci.
California is on track to become one of the hardest-hit states in the country and its governor, Gavin Newsom, announced a series of new restrictions on Thursday.
Stricter stay-at-home orders will be implemented in areas of the state where intensive care units are expected to fall below 15% capacity – the vast majority of the state is expected to meet this criterion within next days.
“The bottom line is that if we don’t act now our hospital system will be overwhelmed,” Newsom said. “If we don’t act now, our death rate will continue to rise.”
The new stay-at-home order, the most ambitious since the pandemic began in March, will include restrictions on business and gathering spaces – no lounges, no gyms, no indoor worship, no grounds games. Restaurants will be allowed to offer take-out or delivery only.
Retail which is already limited to 20% of customer capacity will be allowed to remain open, but all non-essential travel is restricted.
The record number of cases came as the recovery in the US job market collapsed in November.
The United States added only 245,000 new jobs in November, less than the 638,000 jobs added in October, the 672,000 jobs added in September and the 1.4 million jobs added in August. The unemployment rate fell to 6.7%.
Additional reporting by Dominic Rushe
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