For the second year in a row, the United States has seen a record number of coronavirus deaths.
On Thursday, the country reported 3,744 deaths from COVID-19, data from Johns Hopkins University shows.
This breaks the record set on Wednesday of 3,725, bringing the total number of deaths to 342,414.
The number also marks the ninth day of that month, when the DailyMail.com analysis exceeded 3,000 deaths.
A haunting image of the magnitude of the holiday flood in fatalities was when a Maryland Cremation Services van brought the remains of a COVID-19 victim from the Baltimore hospital morgue to his van on Christmas Eve.
More than 19.7 million Americans have been infected since the March pandemic hit the nation. 229,042 of these infections were registered yesterday.
This is the fifth highest number of cases registered in one day.
According to the COVID Tracking Project, the number of hospital stays was 125,220, the highest ever recorded. This is the 29th straight day hospital admissions have exceeded 100,000.
A total of 383,000 to 424,000 COVID-19 deaths will be reported by the week ending January 23, 2021, according to a new forecast from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
At the high end of the model, that could mean more than 82,000 people could die within the next month.
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HAUNTING: Coronavirus deaths continue to rise during the holiday season as Maryland Cremation Services van, Reggie Elliott, brings the remains of a COVID-19 victim from the Baltimore hospital morgue to his van on Christmas Eve
The US recorded the highest number of coronavirus deaths on Thursday at 3,744 (see above).
More than 3,000 people were killed on the ninth day of that month. Pictured: Maryland Cremation Services’ van, Reggie Elliott, brings the remains of a COVID-19 victim from the hospital morgue in Baltimore, Maryland to his van on December 24th
The number of hospital admissions was the highest ever reported at 125,220, marking the 29th straight day hospital admissions exceeded 100,000. Pictured: Health care workers treat a COVID-19 infected patient December 29th at the United Memorial Medical Center in Houston
As of Thursday, the US reported 229,042 new coronavirus infections, the fifth highest number ever reported
US: A new forecast from the CDC predicts a total of 383,000 to 424,000 COVID-19 deaths will be reported by the week ending January 23, 2021
As cases in the US continue to rise, California has reported some record highs. In Los Angeles County alone, 10,000 people were killed by the coronavirus on Wednesday, as California also recorded a record number of deaths.
Gov Gavin Newsom also announced the first discovered case of the new and apparently contagious variant of the coronavirus in a San Diego man.
LA County Health Director Dr. Barbara Ferrer, described the 10,056 deaths in the county as a “terrible milestone”.
She found that more than 7,400 people in the county with coronavirus are staying in hospital, 20 percent of them in intensive care units.
“Most heartbreakingly, many of these deaths would not have occurred if we had better reduced the transmission of the virus,” Ferrer said.
Newsom announced an “unprecedented” high of 432 reported deaths, a number likely to be increased due to a delay in reporting the holidays.
During a briefing with Dr. Anthony Fauci, the country’s foremost infectious disease expert, said he had just learned that the new strain of the virus had been discovered, the second reported case in the nation.
“I don’t think Californians should think this is strange. it’s to be expected, ”said Fauci of the virus variant.
Fauci also said if the U.S. is able to diligently vaccinate people in 2021, the nation could return to normal life by early fall.
He predicts that herd immunity to the virus could likely be achieved if around 70 to 85 percent of the population are vaccinated.
“By early fall, we will have enough herd immunity to really go back to strong semblance of normalcy – schools, theaters, sporting events, restaurants,” he said.
“I think if we get it right we will be there by early fall,” Fauci said before urging people to get vaccinated.
San Diego County officials said the infected man was 30 years old and had no travel history.
‘The patient became symptomatic on the 27th. It was tested yesterday and the new strain was discovered early Wednesday, ”said Eric McDonald, the county’s medical director for epidemiology. Another person in the man’s household was tested, he said.
A variant of the coronavirus was found in Colorado on Tuesday. The Colorado and California cases have raised a number of questions about how the variant circulating in England got to the US and whether it is too late to stop now. Top experts say it is likely already spreading elsewhere in the US.
A supervisor in San Diego said the discovery meant it was already circulating there.
Hours after the new variant was discovered, San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria signed an executive order that allowed for stricter enforcement of state and local health regulations.
He said he has asked the police and prosecutor to impose fines and possibly other enforcement measures on those who go “blatantly and outrageously” against health instructions.
Dr. Anthony Fauci (right) told Gov Gavin Newsom on Wednesday that the nation could return to normal life by early fall if the US is able to vaccinate people diligently in 2021
Gloria praised residents for sticking to the rules of staying home as often as possible and wearing masks outside.
“Many have sacrificed their social life for the common good. Others treated this with a disgusting level of apathy when their neighbors died, ”he said.
Hospitals are increasingly burdened with high-level infections, which are expected to increase in the coming weeks.
Southern California and the agricultural San Joaquin Valley do not have critical care capacity to treat patients with coronavirus. And state health officials remain concerned about gatherings associated with New Year’s Eve.
In New York, officials reported a record number of new daily coronavirus cases in the state on the same day that Governor Andrew Cuomo announced he would lift collection restrictions so the Buffalo Bills could take in thousands of fans at a home playoff game in January can.
New York is struggling to contain a recent surge in coronavirus cases. 13,422 new infections were reported in a single Wednesday – the highest daily increase since the pandemic began.
Hospital stays in the state are also at their highest since early May, at over 7,800.
During a COVID-19 press conference on Wednesday, Cuomo warned that these numbers are likely to continue to rise after the holiday season.
Preparing for the worst, the governor announced the state was preparing to convert the Jacob Javits Center back into a field hospital fearing the health system could collapse again.
The large convention center had already been used to house patients in April when New York City was the epicenter of the virus, but at the time it had only accepted 1,000 people.
But there is hope on the horizon when vaccines are introduced. The chief of Operation Warp Speed, Dr. Moncef Slaoui said Wednesday that a one-shot vaccine could be in use through February if Johnson & Johnson’s sting is approved.
Slaoui said the Janssen could prove to be a “game changer” for the US. Slaoui said the phase 3 trial enrollment for the vaccine is complete and Johnson & Johnson is currently working with the Operation Warp Speed team to expedite the availability of the vaccine doses.
“I think it can be quite a game changer,” Slaoui told reporters. “We hope that this vaccine, which is a one-shot vaccine, will be as effective as Moderna and Pfizer.”
Single-dose shots would mean a faster rollout and people would likely be protected from coronavirus within a few weeks of being injected – rather than a month or so until Moderna or Pfizer’s shots hit their protective peak.
But there is hope on the horizon when vaccines are introduced. The chief of Operation Warp Speed, Dr. Moncef Slaoui (pictured) said Wednesday that a one-shot vaccine could be used by February if Johnson & Johnson’s sting is approved
Slaoui said the Janssen vaccine could prove to be a “game changer” for the US. Johnson & Johnson is currently working with the Operation Warp Speed team to expedite vaccine doses availability. A man receives a Pfizer vaccine on Wednesday
“I think it can be quite a game changer,” said Slaoui. “We hope that this vaccine, which is a one-shot vaccine, will be as effective as Moderna and Pfizer.”
Both Moderna and Pfizer / BioNTech vaccines require two doses and are greater than 94% effectiveness.
Slaoui also announced that the US is expected to approve the low-cost AstraZeneca / Oxford vaccine in April.
Operation Warp Speed’s chief advisor told reporters that the US studies and evaluations would be completed for approval “sometime early April”.
The United States has now vaccinated a total of just 2.6 million people, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The Trump administration’s Operation Warp Speed aimed to vaccinate 20 million people by the end of 2020.
More than 12 million doses have been shipped to the United States, but vaccine distribution is moving slowly.
“We agreed that the number is lower than we had hoped,” said Slaoui during a briefing on Wednesday.
“We know it should be better and we’re working hard to make it better,” he added of the sales process.
The introduction of vaccines in the US is lagging behind other rich nations. In the 16 days since the US began vaccination, 2,589,125 Americans have received their first dose.
That means an average of about 40 out of 100,000 people in the US are vaccinated daily, compared to 60 per capita in the UK who approved AstraZeneca’s vaccine, developed by Oxford University, on Wednesday.
President-elect Joe Biden on Tuesday criticized the Trump administration for the pace of COVID-19 vaccine distribution, predicting that “things will get worse before they get better” when it comes to the pandemic.
“We have to be honest – the next few weeks and months will be very hard, very hard for our nation. Perhaps the toughest of the whole pandemic, ”Biden said during his presentation on Tuesday in Wilmington, Delaware.
Biden also persecuted the Trump administration for its vaccination efforts, warning that the project, called Operation Warp Speed, is progressing more slowly than necessary.
Warp Speed boss admits the shot roll-out is way below 20 million goals – and there’s no plan to approve the shot from AstraZeneca by APRIL, though it’s easier to distribute
The U.S. has given only about 10 percent – less than 2.6 million – of the 20 million doses of coronavirus vaccine it promised Americans by the end of 2020, despite distributing more than 12 million doses to states and territories.
CDC data shows that by 9 a.m. ET on Wednesday, fewer than 2.6 million people had received their first doses of Moderna or Pfizer vaccines – both of which are difficult to ship and handle because they must be stored at freezing temperatures.
The bottleneck is caused by state and federal officials who have failed to come up with plans to get these shots into the arms of Americans, according to a former FDA official who told DailyMail.com that the flaw was true the baton on the last leg is like the vaccine race.
By Wednesday morning, the US had distributed 12.4 million vaccine doses and issued fewer than 2.6 million, according to CDC data updated Wednesday evening
The raids came as the US set another dismal record for the deadliest day yet, with 3,700 deaths in a single day – and a new mutant “super strain” of the virus was discovered in Southern California and Colorado.
While Americans continue to wait for vaccination, the UK on Wednesday approved a vaccine from AstraZeneca that will almost certainly accelerate vaccine distribution because it is cheaper and far easier to ship, handle and store than its alternatives, Pfizer and Moderna.
However, US regulators have no plans to approve the more efficient shot until April – two months after AstraZeneca’s US study has enough data to prove to the FDA that it works.
Other studies have shown that AstraZeneca’s $ 4 vaccine is safe and about 70 percent effective – well above the effectiveness the FDA has announced for approval of a vaccine.
In the United States, however, the federal government has passed the distribution plans almost exclusively to states where the health departments are already overloaded by the rising COVID-19 cases.
The result is a helter-skelter patchwork of last-minute plans that look very different from state to state, bringing drug addicts and prisoners to the front lines in some places, while in others like Florida older Americans are camping over chairs on the grass Night to get vaccinated.
Others say key workers and the elderly are being asked to look around to see if they can get a vaccine.
As anger mounted that only about 230,000 Americans are being vaccinated a day, President Trump tweeted Wednesday that states had the right doses and needed to move.
Even the chief scientist of Operation Warp Speed, Dr. Moncef Slaoui, admitted. that the introduction of the US vaccine “should be better”.
“We agreed that the number is lower than we had hoped,” said Slaoui during a briefing on Wednesday.
“We know it should be better and we’re working hard to make it better,” he added of the sales process.
At least 11.45 million cans have been distributed, and the federal government has allocated close to 20 million cans to be distributed by the end of next week.
