According to a tracker from Johns Hopkins University, the United States set another record for the most deaths from the coronavirus in a day on Wednesday, with 3,865.
The death toll is only increasing as the number of cases and hospital admissions rises. According to the COVID Tracking Project, more than 132,000 Americans are in hospital with COVID-19, another record as the number continues to rise. The country has an average of more than 200,000 new cases every day.
According to Johns Hopkins, as many as 361,000 Americans have died of the virus.
Many Americans are tired of pandemic restrictions, despite the urges of public health officials to enforce them. President Trump
Donald Trump Trump Acknowledges Presidency End After Congress Declares Biden Winning Congress Confirms Biden Winning After Rioters Test Positive For COVID-19 By Rioters This Week. has largely remained silent on the crisis as he focuses on reversing the election results and as a pro-Trump crowd stormed the Capitol on Wednesday.
Many governors were also reluctant to impose new restrictions.
There is a light at the end of the vaccine tunnel, but the distribution effort is getting off to a slow start as the Trump administration says they are working to speed it up.
But with months before the vaccine becomes widely available, a new strain of the coronavirus poses an even greater threat as it is thought to be more contagious, but not more deadly.
That species has already been found in multiple states, and experts say it will clearly become much more prominent as it is easier to spread.
Even without the new species being dominant in the US, hospitals are already overwhelmed in some areas, especially Los Angeles. Ambulance workers there were recently ordered not to transport some patients with a low survival rate to hospitals due to capacity problems.