US reported more than 10,000 Covid-19 deaths in four days
Covid-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths are at record-high levels nationwide, and officials expect the US will soon bear the full brunt of another surge of infections fueled by Thanksgiving gatherings.
"We have not yet seen the full effect of a potential surge upon a surge," Dr. Anthony Fauci told CNN Friday night. "The travel associated with Thanksgiving, the congregating at family and social gatherings with people indoors, sometimes without masks. So that may peak two to three weeks from now."
And that surge will come right as travel and social gatherings will likely pick up again for the Christmas holiday.
"So, we're really very concerned," Fauci said.
The bleak forecast comes as Food and Drug Administration (FDA) vaccine advisers are scheduled to meet to discuss Pfizer's and Moderna's applications for emergency use authorization of their Covid-19 vaccines, which some state leaders say they're expecting to get the first doses of in the coming weeks.
But health officials warn that while some Americans may receive a vaccine by the end of the year, the country likely won't see any meaningful impacts until late spring.
In the meantime, experts project incredibly challenging next few months.
Another 260,000 deaths projected in coming months
On Friday, more than 220,000 new infections were reported -- the highest number since the pandemic's start. And more than 101,200 people are hospitalized with Covid-19 nationwide -- another record, according to the COVID Tracking Project. Hospital systems across the country are hitting their breaking points.
In Miami-Dade County, Chief Medical Officer Peter Paige says hospitalizations have spiked by nearly 140% over the past two months, while ICU rates have jumped 58% over the same time period.
"This is particularly concerning considering we really don't know that the most challenging days may still be ahead of us," Paige said.
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti on Friday called the accelerating pandemic "the greatest threat to life in Los Angeles that we have ever faced." Hospitalizations in Los Angeles County have tripled in the last week, he said, and the county will likely run out of beds in two to four weeks if cases continue climbing.
And more than 10,000 people have died of Covid-19 this month -- with every day in December so far seeing more than 2,500 daily deaths reported across the US.
The University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) projects daily deaths will peak at more than 2,900 in mid-January.
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