More people have died across the U.S. than anywhere else: nearly 348,000 Americans since the pandemic began. Around 115,000 more could die over the next month, according to projections from the University of Washington Institute for Health Metrics and Assessment.
That’s while hospitals are at record highs. The U.S. reported 125,379 COVID-19 patients in the hospital nationwide Thursday, according to the COVIDTracking Project. That number dropped slightly on Friday, with 125,057 hospitals reported – about a 163% increase from two months ago.
A doctor in California said hospitals have hit a “breakout spot”.
“We are also concerned that at some point we will have a hard time finding the location and staff to care for all the ill patients who come in with COVID-19 who need it. helped us, “said Dr. Nicole Van Groningen of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.
And Friday’s grim case milestone also means the country has also recorded the highest COVID-19 infections. It is double what India – the country with the second highest number of cases – has reported and almost three times what Brazil – the third country by line – has reported.
But the worst may not be over yet: experts fear that in the coming weeks – after holiday travel and rallies – the U.S. would see another rise in potential drivers Hospitals and even higher deaths.
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Dr. Anthony Fauci told CNN earlier in the week that the country has seen an upturn that has “just got out … out of control,” and that the next few weeks could be even worse.
“As soon as you reach large numbers of people at an indoor dinner, poor air ventilation and circulation, that’s when you get in trouble,” he said. “That’s what worries us – in addition to the upside, we’re going to get a rise above that uptick that January could make even worse than December. “
“I think we have to accept that it’s going to get worse,” Fauci said.
How states grow at the start of a new year
In Arkansas, Gov. Asa Hutchinson said Friday that the state reported more than 4,300 new cases – the highest rate he said came “in the rise after travel and Christmas gatherings.”
“As we enter this new year, our first intention should be to follow directions. We all have to do our part,” he wrote on Twitter.
Georgia on Friday announced a total of more than 8,700 new COVID-19 cases in the state – a new high. Maryland on the same day reported the second highest number of daily cases. New York, meanwhile, added nearly 16,500 new cases – a day after receiving its highest ever one-day case.
“As we begin 2021, I urge all of New York to look to their better angels and continue the practices we know to stop the spread of the this virus – wash your hands, social distance, and wear a mask, “said Gov. Andrew Cuomo in his statement.
Health officials in Texas reported high-grade COVID-19 hospitals across the state for the fifth day in a row, with more than 12,400 patients.
In California, a state that is fighting off the brutality of new diseases, hospitals and deaths, health officials announced a daily death toll: more than 580 people lost the virus.
ICU capacity in many parts of the state remains dangerously low. In Southern California and the San Joaquin Valley, zero beds are available. One health official said earlier in the week that rising patients had pushed hospitals to the brink of disaster. “
And that’s because some hospitals have infrastructure issues that prevent them from delivering high pressure oxygen to patients.
The California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services said design and construction experts from U.S. Military Engineers are being deployed to the Los Angeles area to “assess and where necessary to upgrade oxygen delivery systems at six hospitals.”
Hospitals in the department, the office said, handle an “unprecedented” number of COVID-19 patients and “the built-in oxygen delivery systems built into many older hospitals are failing. overcome the amount of oxygen flow required to treat patients with respiratory issues arising from COVID-19. “
A testing company says there is no widespread virus spread in the US
As officials across the country fight off the spread of the virus, they are also on the lookout for a variant that was first discovered in the UK and may be more mobile. The variant has been found in at least 30 countries and has been found in Colorado, California and Florida.
Health officials in California first said Wednesday that a 30-year-old San Diego man tested positive for the UK variable. On Thursday, county health officials told CNN that three new cases of the variant have been reported in San Diego.
“By finding out the additional issues county health officials believe the new strain of the virus is widespread in the community,” a county spokesman said.
The new cases were found in two men in their 40s and one in his 50s, officials said.
“A contact finding shows that two men did not travel outside the county while the third case has not yet been fully interviewed,” officials said. “None of the men had a known interaction with each other or to the other case proved. “
But while some experts have said the variant appears to be circulating in the U.S., tests to date do not indicate that it is common across the country, genomics company Helix told CNN.
Only four out of 31 samples have turned positive for the mutation pattern first identified in the UK, Helix said. The genetic pattern was first captured by a test glitch that technologists call the S gene dropout.
“We also know that other labs in Northeast S dropout samples did not detect the UK variant in their numbers,” Dr. James Lu, co-founder and president of Helix, told CNN in a post- d.
“We cannot say with confidence when the B.1.1.7 pressure appeared in the US,” Lu said. But it’s not common, which shows it hasn’t been circulating for long.
But the U.S. doesn’t look hard, Lu said.
“Currently, the U.S. is doing less classification than many other countries – a recent report from GISAID’s (genomics database) estimated that the U.S. accounts for 0.3% of positive cases in the U.S. against the UK at around 7%. “
Fauci: The US will continue to provide vaccine doses weeks apart
Meanwhile, COVID-19 vaccinations are continuing, but at a slower pace than some officials had hoped.
More than 12.4 million vaccine doses have been distributed nationwide and more than 2.7 million doses have been given, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
To date, vaccines approved in the US require two fixed doses a few weeks apart. And the country will continue to do so and will not follow the UK’s decision to delay second doses, Fauci told CNN on Friday.
“I wouldn’t want that,” Fauci said when asked about the new UK dosing regimen. “We’re going to keep doing what we’re doing.”
Earlier this week, British officials said that “the UK will give priority to giving the first dose of the vaccine to those in the most at-risk group” and allow it to give the second dose up to 12 weeks later.
The UK has adopted that strategy to deliver the first dose as soon as possible, saying it provides some protection.
“The fact is that we want to keep up with what science tells us, and the data we have for both [vaccines] indicate that you are giving a prime, followed by an increase in 21 days with Pfizer and 28 days with Moderna. And right now, that ‘s the way we go about it, and that’ s the decision that has been made, “Fauci said.
“We make data-based decisions. We don’t have any data about giving a single dose and waiting longer than the usual time” to deliver the second dose, he said.
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