The number of coronavirus patients, who currently remain in hospitals across the United States, has exceeded one lakh.
Already going through a tough phase as the world's most affected country, the United States on Wednesday witnessed its worst single-day COVID-19 death toll since the pandemic began. At least 2,760 deaths were reported in the country on Wednesday, eight more than its previous high point of 2,752 on April 15.
Not just the deaths, hospitalisations due to coronavirus also hit an all-time high on Wednesday. The number topped 1,00,000; more than double of what was reported at the beginning of November. The exact number of hospitalized patients stands at 100,226. This number is almost twice higher than during the first wave of the pandemic in spring.
Some states reported that they were facing a shortage of hospital beds
As per experts, this is a clear indicator of what the days ahead may look like. "If you tell me the hospitalizations are up this week, I’ll tell you that several weeks down the road, the deaths will be up,” New York Time quoted Dr Jeremy Faust, an emergency medicine physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston as saying.
The publication also reported that these numbers represent what health authorities report on any given day and not when people actually die. This means that even though the figures appeared to come down in the days after Thanksgiving, for example, it most likely meant that the people doing the tallying had time off, not that fewer people were dying.
Even though the US has registered a significant rise in the number of new infections, with fresh cases topping one million a week, the fatality rate is considerably low, resulting in fewer deaths. As per data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, infections resulting in death dropped from 6.7 per cent in April to 1.9 per cent in September.
The World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic on March 11. To date, more than 64.3 million people have been infected with the coronavirus worldwide, with over 1.4 million fatalities, according to Johns Hopkins University (JHU).
The United States remains the worst-hit nation both in terms of the number of cases (over 13.9 million) and fatalities (more than 273,000), JHU adds.
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
 "US COVID")
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}