Single day U.S. mark jumps up to 3,157
The U.S. recorded more than 3,100 COVID-19 deaths in a single day, obliterating the record set last spring, while the number of Americans in the hospital with the virus has eclipsed 100,000 for the first time and new cases have begun topping 200,000 a day, according to figures released Thursday.
The 3,157 deaths recorded on Wednesday surpassed the number of fatalities on 9/11 and shattered the mark of 2,603, set on April 15, when the New York metropolitan area was the epicenter of the U.S. outbreak, according to Johns Hopkins University.
Americans in the hospital with the coronavirus likewise hit an all-time high Wednesday, according to the COVID Tracking Project. The figure has more than doubled over the past month. And new cases per day are escalating, by Johns Hopkins’ count.
The three main benchmarks showed a country slipping deeper into crisis, with perhaps the worst yet to come — in part because of the delayed effects from Thanksgiving, when millions of Americans disregarded warnings to stay home and celebrate only with members of their household.
Plans for the vaccine are being rolled out as the surging pandemic swamps U.S. hospitals and leaves nurses and other medical workers shorthanded. Nationwide, the coronavirus is blamed for more than 275,000 deaths and 14 million confirmed infections.
Keeping health care workers on their feet is considered vital to dealing with the crisis. And nursing home patients have proven highly vulnerable to the virus. Patients and staff members at nursing homes and other long-term care centers account for 39 percent of the nation’s COVID-19 deaths.
State plans vary
With initial supplies of the vaccine certain to be limited, governors and other state officials are weighing both health and economic concerns in deciding the order in which the shots will be dispensed.
States face a Friday deadline to submit requests for doses of the Pfizer vaccine and specify where they should be shipped, and many appear to be heeding nonbinding guidelines adopted this week by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to put health care workers and nursing home patients first.
But they’re also facing a multitude of decisions about other categories of residents — some specific to their states, some vital to their economies.
Colorado’s draft plan, which is being revised, puts ski resort workers who share close quarters in the second phase of vaccine distribution, in recognition of the $6 billion industry’s linchpin role in the state’s economy.
In Arkansas, Gov. Asa Hutchinson said health care and long-term care facility workers are the top priority, but the state was still refining who would be included in the next phase. A draft vaccination plan submitted to the CDC in October listed poultry
workers along with other essential workers such as teachers, law enforcement and correctional employees in a 1B category.
Poultry is a major part of Arkansas’ economy, and nearly 6,000 poultry workers have tested positive for the virus since the pandemic began, according to the state Health Department.
“We know these workers have been the brunt of large outbreaks not only in our state, but also in other states,” said Dr. Jose Romero, the state’s health secretary and chairman of the CDC’S Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.
As authorities draw up their priority lists for the vaccine, firefighter groups asked the Minnesota governor to be placed in the first group. The Illinois plan gives highest priority to health care workers but also calls for first responders to be in the first batch to get the shot. Other states are struggling with where to put prisoners in the pecking order.
Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey said he wants teachers to get priority so schools can stay open. Two California lawmakers asked for that, too, saying distance learning is harming students’ education.
“Our state’s children cannot afford to wait,” wrote Republican Assemblyman Jordan Cunningham and Democratic Assemblyman Patrick O’donnell. “This is too important to overlook or sweep aside.”
Texas is putting hospital staff, nursing home workers and paramedics at the top of the list, followed by outpatient medical employees, pharmacists, funeral home workers and school nurses. Nursing home patients did not make the cut for the first phase.
Utah officials said Thursday that frontline health care workers will take top priority, with the five hospitals treating the most COVID-19 patients getting the first doses. State health officials said that additional doses likely will be available in February and March for more hospital workers, and essential workers — including police officers, firefighters and teachers — also will be prioritized.
CDC leader weighs in
The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Robert Redfield, said Thursday that he looks forward to future recommendations that prioritize people
70 and older who live with younger relatives.
”Often our Hispanic, Black and tribal nations families care for their elderly in multigenerational households, and they are also at significant risk,” Redfield said in a statement.
Redfield has approved initial recommendations that put health care personnel and residents of longterm care facilities at the front of the line.
No vaccine has been authorized for use yet in the U.S., but the preliminary results of ongoing clinical trials have been encouraging for Moderna’s and Pfizer’s candidates. If the Food and Drug Administration allows emergency use of one or both of those vaccines, there will be limited, rationed supplies before the end of the year.
Operation Warp Speed officials announced last week that states would receive vaccine in proportion to their adult populations, at least for the first 6.4 million doses and possibly beyond.
“We thought it best to keep it simple,” Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said. “We thought that would be the fairest approach, the most consistent.”
Advocates strongly expressed frustration over the way some states are putting medical workers ahead of nursing home residents.
“It would be unconscionable not to give top priority to protect the population that is more susceptible or vulnerable to the virus,” said John Sauer, head of Leadingage in Wisconsin, a group representing nonprofit long-term care facilities.
He added: “I can’t think of a more raw form of ageism than that. The population that is most vulnerable to succumbing to this virus is not going to be given priority? I mean, that just says we don’t value the lives of people in long-term care.”
Iowa, which expects to get 172,000 doses over the next month, will make them available first to health care workers and nursing home residents and staff, while an advisory council will recommend who comes next to “minimize health inequities based on poverty, geography” and other factors, state Human Services Director Kelly Garcia said.
For example, prison inmates and residents of state institutions for the disabled aren’t in the first round but will be put ahead of others, she said.
Operation Warp Speed officials announced last week that states would receive vaccine in proportion to their adult populations, at least for the first 6.4 million doses and possibly beyond.