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WASHINGTON: The daily death toll from COVID-19 in the US has surpassed 3,000 for the first time, prompting calls for Americans to cut back on Christmas plans even with vaccines about to gain regulatory approval.
Deaths from COVID-19 reached 3,253 on Wednesday, bringing the United States’ total since the start of the pandemic to 289,740. A record 106,219 people were hospitalized with the highly infectious disease, which threatens to overwhelm many healthcare systems.
Healthcare professionals and support staff, exhausted by the demands of the pandemic, have been watching patients die alone as millions of Americans refuse to follow medical advice to wear masks and avoid crowds and smaller gatherings to contain the spread of the virus.
In California’s agricultural San Joaquin Valley region, less than 2 percent of intensive care unit (ICU) beds remain unoccupied, the California Department of Public Health said Thursday.
A person uses his mobile phone at sunset from the Griffith Observatory during a partial lockdown amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Los Angeles, California, on December 7, 2020 (Photo: REUTERS / Mario Anzuoni ).
The number of available ICU beds continued to decline across the most populous state in the U.S., with only 7.7 percent availability in the densely populated region of Southern California.
Nursing home residents and staff have also felt the burden.
“This is a pandemic that nobody has ever experienced,” Stephen Hanse, president of the New York State Health Facilities Association and New York State Center for Assisted Living, told Reuters.
The number of deaths in one day exceeded the number of lives lost in the attacks of September 11, 2001, underscoring the number of victims and the call on Americans to redouble their efforts.
“There are no Christmas parties. There is no safe Christmas party in this country right now,” Dr. Michael Osterholm, a member of US President-elect Joe Biden’s COVID-19 advisory board, told CNN on Thursday. .
“It won’t end after that, but that’s the period right now that we could have a raise over a raise over a raise,” Osterholm said.
More than half of the states in the US have recently introduced or resumed restrictions in an attempt to curb the rampant spread of the virus.
On Thursday, Virginia Governor Ralph Northam imposed a curfew from midnight to 5 a.m., among other measures that go into effect Monday and last until at least January 31.
“The number of cases has been increasing for weeks, now it is higher than ever during this entire pandemic, Northam said at a news conference.
A person walks past a window with mannequins adorned with protective masks at The Grove shopping center during a partial closure amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Los Angeles, California, on December 7, 2020 (Photo: REUTERS / Mario Anzuoni)
Providing a glimmer of hope, a vaccine could start reaching healthcare workers, first responders and nursing home residents in a matter of days in what Hanse called “light at the end of the tunnel.”
A panel of independent medical experts later on Thursday recommended that the US Food and Drug Administration authorize the emergency use of a vaccine from Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech.
FDA consent could come on Friday or Saturday, followed by the first American injections on Sunday or Monday, Moncef Slaoui, senior adviser to the Trump administration’s Operation Warp Speed vaccine development program, told Fox News.
A second vaccine developed by Moderna will be reviewed by the advisory panel next week.
Biden, who succeeds President Donald Trump on January 20, has set a goal of vaccinating 100 million people in the first 100 days of his administration.
Meanwhile, like California, ICUs at hundreds of hospitals across the country were at or near capacity, data from the US Department of Health and Human Services showed.
California reported just under 30,000 new COVID-19 cases and 220 deaths on Wednesday, bringing the total deaths there to 20,463.
The pandemic has also forced millions out of work, as state and local officials place restrictions on social and economic life to contain the outbreak.
Meanwhile, Congress has struggled to end a months-long stalemate on economic aid.
Disagreements remain over corporate liability protections demanded by Republicans and aid to state and local governments, whose budgets have skyrocketed by the pandemic, requested by Democrats before a final deal on pandemic assistance is reached.
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