US virus deaths hit highest daily total
The U.S. registered more COVID-19 deaths in a single day than ever before with nearly 3,900 on Wednesday, the 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, urging people to do their part to help slow the virus’s spread.
About 1.9 million people around the world have died of the coronavirus, more than 360,000 in the United States. December was by far the nation’s deadliest month, and health experts are warning that January could be worse because of family gatherings and travel during the holidays.
A new, more contagious variant of the virus is taking hold around the world
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 maskless, will have on the spread of the scourge.
On Wednesday, the day a horde of protesters breached the U.S. Capitol, disrupting efforts to certify the election of Joe Biden, the U.S. recorded 3,865 COVID-19 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University. .
“The domestic terrorists overran the Capitol police, just as the virus has been allowed to overrun Americans,” said Dr. Eric Topol, head of Scripps Research Translational Institute. “The U.S. lost control of a Trump-incited mob and a Trump-played-down pandemic virus.”
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. Only Arizona tops California in cases per resident.
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.
“This is a health crisis of epic proportions,” said Barbara Ferrer, public health director for Los Angeles County.
Guidelines posted on the website for Methodist Hospital of Southern California warned: “If a patient becomes extremely ill and very unlikely to survive their illness (even with lifesaving treatment), then certain resources … may be allocated to another patient who is more likely to survive.”
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 one-day gain of about 600,000, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Hundreds of millions will need to be vaccinated to stop the coronavirus.