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The United States closed 2020 with the deadliest and most infectious month since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, while also exceeding 20 million confirmed cases of Covid-19.
More than 77,000 people lost their lives in December to Covid-19, while 6.4 million contracted the virus amid the emergence of a new variant of the virus and delayed efforts to vaccinate people. The second deadliest month was April 2020, with more than 58,000 deaths.
At least 227,651 new cases were reported Thursday and 3,451 people died, marking the second highest number of daily deaths, according to the NBC News tally.
The virus has killed more than 346,000 people in the United States.
At least four cases of a new variant of Covid-19 first detected in the UK have been reported in Colorado, California and Florida. However, Dr. Mercedes Carnethon, vice president of preventive medicine at Northwestern University, said experts are “pretty sure this variant is now everywhere.”
This variant also “appears to affect more adults under the age of 20,” Carnethon told MSNBC. “And I think the reason that is particularly critical is that this younger adult population is circulating more. They are playing some of the essential roles, such as delivery work, factory work, and generally they are in the population, and that population is not in line to be vaccinated soon. “
Only about 2.8 million people have received vaccinations since the start of vaccines in mid-December, despite the Trump administration aiming to vaccinate at least 20 million people by the start of the new year. Officials in states facing an increase in cases have said a lack of trained and ready-to-admin staff to administer vaccines has contributed to the delays.
Even with the vaccines available, cases are almost certain to continue to rise and another increase is expected in the weeks after Christmas and New Years.
Thursday became the second day in a row that New York surpassed its record for new daily cases with 15,700. As the state prepares to potentially report its millionth case this Saturday, officials have said they hope to vaccinate at least a million people this month.
The state of Virginia also hit a single-day record Thursday with 5,239 new cases.
In California, hospitalizations have increased eightfold in two months and nearly tenfold in Los Angeles County. As hospitals are overcrowded with patients and intensive care units have no more beds for Covid-19 patients, makeshift rooms are being installed in tents, stadiums and classrooms to make up for the lack of space in overwhelmed hospitals. .
On Thursday, the total number of deaths in California surpassed 25,000, making it the third state to cross that milestone along with New York and Texas.
“The most heartbreaking thing is that if we had done a better job of reducing the transmission of the virus, many of these deaths would not have occurred,” said Barbara Ferrer, Los Angeles County public health director, who has pleaded with people to don’t gather and worsen the spread.
The states of Nevada, North Carolina and Wyoming also set new records for coronavirus deaths in a single day, reporting 59, 123 and 33 deaths, respectively.
Joe Murphy and The Associated Press contributed.
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