The US suffered the deadliest ever day of the coronavirus pandemic on Thursday, with more than 4,000 people dying from the virus amid warnings that the situation could worsen further this month.
The record daily death toll of 4,085, according to data from Johns Hopkins University, has brought the total number of U.S. deaths to more than 365,000 since the start of the pandemic, with more than 21.5 million people contracting the disease – both totals are much larger than any. different country in the world.
The number of Covid-19 cases is on the rise in nearly every corner of the US, with deaths rising dramatically in some places – in Los Angeles County, one person now dies from the virus every eight minutes. According to projections from the University of Washington, an additional 115,000 people could lose their lives nationally in the next four weeks.
“We think it will get worse as we start January,” Anthony Fauci said in an interview with NPR. “As we move into the next few weeks in January, it will likely reflect the holidays during the holiday season and the gatherings that usually take place socially during that period.”
Fauci, who will become Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser when he assumes the US presidency on Jan. 20, said that in some cases, Americans can “slow down the gear” by adhering to social distance and wearing a mask. “Now is not the time to withdraw from this,” he said.
The upcoming Biden administration will aim to encourage the wearing of universal masks for the first 100 days and ramp up the Covid vaccinations to 1 million injections per day. Fauci admitted that distribution of the vaccine has been slow so far – more than 5.3 million people have received at least the first dose of the vaccine, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, while more than 21 million doses have been sent to the United States. States have been sent. .
This is well below the goals set by the Trump administration, which pledged that by the end of December 20 million people would be vaccinated and 40 million doses distributed across the country. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, said the Washington Post’s vaccination distribution had gotten off to a “rocky start” and that the next few weeks “would be really crucial to see how we can set up this distribution system and go smoother”.
Steven Stack, the Kentucky public health commissioner, said reports from the federal government had raised unrealistic expectations of a rapid vaccine program. “We have promised too much and underdelivered as a nation,” Stack said, adding that his state had only received a third of the promised vaccines.
He added that some people were also reluctant to take the photos. “Sometimes more than 30% of eligible people refuse to receive the vaccine when it is offered,” said Stack. “There must be flexibility, otherwise we will not admit the vaccine. A shot in a willing arm ultimately has higher priority than a shot in just certain arms. “