AUGUSTA, Georgia. (WRDW / WAGT) – The US has reached a new peak in coronavirus deaths in a single day, as COVID-19 emerges in all states.
In the past two weeks, the United States has seen its five deadliest pandemic days, CNN reported.
There were more than 4,000 virus-related deaths reported Thursday. This came a day after the US set a new high of 3,900.
COVID-19 has claimed more than 365,000 lives in the United States, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
CNN reports that projections indicate that almost 115,000 more people may die in the next four weeks, according to the University of Washington Institute of Health Metrics and Assessment.
In the two-state region, South Carolina broke its previous record with 4,986 new confirmed cases on Friday and an additional 28 confirmed deaths. This brings the total number of people with confirmed cases since the outbreak started to 315,353 and confirmed deaths to 5,217.
And Georgia saw another dark day for new daily cases on Friday. Peach State reported 10,393 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 on Friday, January 8, with 80 new deaths.
This brings the total to 620,247 confirmed cases in the state since the beginning of the pandemic. At least 10,180 coronavirus-related deaths have been reported across the state.
Across the nation
Cases and deaths are on the rise in California, Arizona, Texas and Florida. These four states had a total of 1,500 deaths and 80,000 cases on Thursday – figures comparable to national totals in October.
Many hospitals in Los Angeles and other hard-hit areas are struggling to keep pace and are warned that they may need to ration care, as intensive care beds are shrinking. Many stretched nurses are now taking care of more patients than is normally permitted by state law, after the state began issuing exemptions that allow hospitals to temporarily circumvent a strict nurse-patient ratio law.
The biggest fear is that hospitals will be inclined to ration care in a few weeks, when people who have ignored the rules of social detachment to meet with friends and relatives at Christmas and New Year start to attend for medical care.
In Los Angeles County, at Henry Mayo New Hall in Valencia, nurse Nerissa Black says her hospital is full of patients, comparing the situation with that of New York at the beginning of the pandemic.
She has worked there for seven years and works in the telemetry unit where she has six patients. She can basically spend 10 minutes with each of them per hour, which includes the time it takes to change her personal protective equipment and document and coordinate her care.
“It is very difficult to decide which one to see first: the patient who has chest pain or the patient whose oxygen level is dropping,” she said, speaking on a day when she was not working after taking the second injection of the Pfizer vaccine.
At St. Joseph’s Hospital, south of Los Angeles, nurses in the COVID-19 ward describe being overwhelmed as the death toll rises.
“Only today we had two deaths in this unit. And that is the norm, ”said Caroline Brandenburger. “I usually see one to two each shift. Super sad. “
“They struggle every day and struggle to breathe every day, even with tons of oxygen. And then you just watch them die, ”said Brandenburger. “They just die.”
The outbreak worsened again in Arizona, with the state now leading the country with the highest COVID-19 diagnostic rate last week. From December 30 to January 6, one in 115 people was diagnosed with the virus.
More than 132,000 people across the country are hospitalized with the virus.
For most people, the virus causes mild or moderate symptoms for up to three weeks, although older adults and people with existing health problems can face serious illness and death. The vast majority of people recover.
From reports by WRDW / WAGT, CNN and The Associated Press