Record deaths follow surge
Work to distribute vaccine continues as variant spreads
The U.S. registered more COVID -19 deaths in a single day than ever before — nearly 3,900 — on the very day the mob attack on the Capitol laid bare some of the same, deep political divisions that have hampered the battle against the pandemic.
The virus is surging in several states, with California hit particularly hard, reporting on Thursday a record two-day total of 1,042 coronavirus deaths. Skyrocketing caseloads there are threatening to force hospitals to ration care and essentially decide who lives and who dies.
“Folks are gasping for breath. Folks look like they ’re drowning when they are in bed right in front of us,” said Dr. Jeffrey Chien, an emergency
room physician at Santa Clara Valley Regional Medical Center. “I’m begging everyone to help us out because we aren’t the front line. We’re the last line.”
Meanwhile, the number of Americans who have gotten their first shot of the COVID -19 vaccine climbed to at least 5.9 million Thursday, a oneday gain of about 600,000, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
About 1.9 million people around the world have
died of the virus, more than 360,000 in the U.S. alone. December was the nation’s deadliest month yet, and health experts are warning that January could be more terrible because of family gatherings and travel over the holidays.
A new, more contagious variant is spreading around the globe and in the U.S. Also, it remains to be seen what effect the thousands of supporters of President Donald Trump who converged this week in Washington, many of them without masks, will have on the spread of the scourge.
On Wednesday,the U.S. recorded 3,865 virus deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University. The numbers can fluctuate dramatically after holidays and weekends, and the figure is subject to revision.
In California, health authorities Thursday reported 583 new deaths, a day after 459 people died. The overall death toll there stands at more than 28,000.
The state also registered more than a quarter-million new weekly cases, and only Arizona tops California in cases per resident. Florida broke its record for the highest single-day number of cases with over 19,800, while its death toll reached 22,400.
Los Angeles County, the nation’s most populous with 10 million residents, and nearly two dozen other counties have essentially run out of intensive care unit beds for COVID -19 patients.