Vice Mayor Alix Desulme, of the city of North Miami, raises his arm during a prayer for the lost local lives for COVID-19 as a memorial to the lost opens at Griffing Park on October 28, 2020 in North Miami, Florida.
Joe Raedle | Getty Images
More than 4,000 people died of Covid-19 in the United States in one day for the first time on Thursday, while the country records record numbers and the outbreak is getting more serious each day.
The US has reported a record number of daily deaths in five of the past 10 days, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. Last week, the US reported an average of more than 2,700 deaths per day, an increase of 16% compared to the previous week, according to a CNBC analysis of Hopkins data.
Nearly 20,000 people in the country died from Covid in January alone, setting the pace for a month that is likely to rival December in the deadliest month of the pandemic.
Leading health officials, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, are warning that the outbreak may get worse before it gets better.
“We believe that things will get worse as we enter January,” Fauci said on Thursday in an interview with NPR. He said that Americans can still “contain this acceleration” if they strictly adhere to public health measures, such as wearing masks and social distance.
As of Thursday, cases were still rising rapidly, a sign that more deaths will occur as people are diagnosed, become ill and enter hospitals, many of whom are overwhelmed by the increase in Covid’s patients. The United States reported more than 274,700 new cases on Thursday, bringing the seven-day average to a new record of 228,400, according to Hopkins data.
New daily cases are increasing almost everywhere. The average number of new daily cases is increasing by at least 5% in 44 states and the District of Columbia. New deaths are increasing rapidly in Southern California, where health workers are rationing supplemental oxygen and asking ambulances to wait hours before leaving patients.
Cases and hospitalizations are also increasing rapidly in Arizona, according to data from Hopkins, a sign that new daily deaths may appear soon. The Department of Health and Human Services announced on Thursday that it was setting up an infusion center to help administer Covid’s antibody treatments, which have shown promise in preventing hospitalization if used early in the infection.
With the outbreak worsening, many Americans across the country are waiting to receive one of the authorized vaccines being launched. Initial implementation has been slow, with the United States failing to reach the goal of vaccinating 20 million Americans in December, as federal officials intended.
However, federal officials, including Dr. Fauci and Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said the pace is likely to increase this month. The launch has already shown some signs of slowly gaining speed.
The United States administered more than 600,000 vaccines in 24 hours, the CDC reported on Thursday. That is the maximum over a period of one day so far, according to data from the CDC. More than 21.4 million doses have been distributed, according to CDC data, but only 5.9 million have been administered.
Amid criticism of slow initial implementation, HHS officials are now asking states to move beyond the first level of prioritization. Health professionals and residents of long-term care facilities should receive the vaccine first, in accordance with CDC guidelines. But HHS Secretary Alex Azar said earlier this week that states should open up to older and more vulnerable Americans if it accelerated the pace of deployment.
In addition to the pressure to vaccinate quickly, there is the arrival of a new variant of the virus. The new variant, known as B.1.1.7, which was first discovered in the UK, has now been found in at least seven states. Although it does not appear to make people more seriously ill, CDC officials say they believe it will spread more easily. This could make the outbreak even worse and quickly overburden hospitals, CDC officials said last week.