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With a recently licensed COVID-19 vaccine being distributed in hospitals and nursing homes and a second vaccine on the horizon, the United States has entered a hopeful new phase in the coronavirus pandemic.
But that hope is tempered by the severity of the pandemic in the country, which yesterday reported new highs in a single day of COVID-19 cases (247,403), hospitalizations (113,090) and deaths (3,656), according to Johns data. Hopkins. and the COVID Tracking Project.
Although the virus has spread across the country and cases have risen exponentially for months, the rise in new cases in recent weeks may be related to travel and gatherings during the Thanksgiving holidays. And with more vacation trips and reunions expected in the coming weeks, there is fear of a surge of a surge that could overwhelm hospitals just as the mass vaccination campaign begins.
There have now been 17,149,231 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the United States since the start of the pandemic and 309,947 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins COVID-19 dashboard.
Hospitals besieged in California
While all states are seeing an increase in cases, none at this time are being hit harder than California, which reported 53,711 new infections and 293 deaths statewide yesterday, according to the Associated Press. The surge has depleted the supply of intensive care unit (ICU) beds in Southern California and the Central Valley, forcing hospitals to take advantage of their surge capacity.
“Hospitals are under siege and our models show no end in sight,” Dr. Christina Ghaly, MD, director of the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services, told the AP.
Most California residents have stay-at-home orders issued by Governor Gavin Newsom to reduce the spread of the virus and prevent intensive care units from being overwhelmed. On Wednesday, Newsom announced that the San Francisco Bay Area would join three other regions where UCI capacity is below 15%, Greater Sacramento, Southern California and the San Joaquin Valley, according to the order.
In neighboring Arizona, COVID-19 hospitalizations have reached their highest level since the start of the pandemic, reports AZCentral. The 3,884 COVID-19 patients hospitalized as of yesterday exceeded the previous single-day high, recorded on July 13, of 3,517. Arizona’s average new case rate over the past week (92.1 per 100,000 people) is the fourth highest in the nation, according to the CDC COVID Data Tracker.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the country, Pennsylvania is experiencing its worst increase in the pandemic, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports. The state reported 9,966 new COVID-19 cases and 224 virus-related deaths today and set a record for hospitalizations for the fifth day in a row. The 6,346 COVID-19 patients currently in Pennsylvania hospitals are more than double the number of patients treated during the spring surge.
the New York Times reports that the national number of new daily cases in the United States is six times higher than 3 months ago, and three times as many people are dying.
And the death toll is likely to get worse. In its latest ensemble forecast, which is based on the work of 37 modeling groups, the CDC predicts that the number of recently reported COVID-19 deaths per week for the next 4 weeks is likely to increase in 23 jurisdictions, giving as resulted in a total of 357,000 to 391,000 deaths from COVID-19 as of January 9.
Macron tests positive for COVID-19
In global COVID-19 developments:
- French President Emmanuel Macron is in quarantine at the Elysee Palace after testing positive for COVID-19, according to Reuters. The positive test has sparked a contact tracing and testing effort that involved several European Union leaders whom Macron met with last week at a summit in Brussels. French officials believe Macron was infected at the summit.
- President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen announced on Twitter that COVID-19 vaccination will begin in Europe on December 27, 28 and 29, pending authorization from the European Medicines Agency (EMA). The EMA will meet on December 21 to review the safety and efficacy data for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
- The Korean Agency for Disease Control and Prevention reported 22 deaths from COVID-19 in South Korea today, the highest number of deaths in a single day the country has recorded since the start of the pandemic, according to Reuters. Many residents of Seoul, the epicenter of the country’s recent outbreak, have started stocking up on food and other essential supplies in anticipation of a shutdown. “
- Reuters also reports that Tokyo raised its alert level to the highest of four stages today, as new infections in the city hit a new daily record of 822.
- The African regional office of the World Health Organization (WHO) warns that preventive measures should be stepped up in African countries ahead of the holidays amid a steady rise in coronavirus infections. The region’s 47 countries have registered an average of 46,000 new cases per week since mid-October, compared with 29,000 per week between early September and early October. “Rising COVID-19 infections and the holiday season present a worrying combination,” Richard Mihigo, MPH, Coordinator of the Immunization and Vaccine Development Program at the WHO Regional Office for Africa, said in a news release.
- The global total of confirmed COVID-19 cases is 74,728,558, with 1,657,834 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins.
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