Florida vaccinates older adults against covid-19 3:13
(CNN) ––
The hospitalizations of patients with covid-19 in the US are at their peak, which has led medical facilities to face difficulties in finding spaces to locate additional patients.
Doctors in Santa Clara, California, must treat some critically ill patients in the emergency room, as there are simply no spaces in the intensive care units.
"Often the only time we can transfer someone is when a COVID-19 patient dies."
This was warned this Thursday by Dr. Marco Randazzo, an emergency doctor, at a press conference.
LEE: The United States exceeds 20 million cases of covid-19
Dr. Ahmad Kamal of Santa Clara Valley Medical Center said they face conditions that are not normal.
"Clearly we are not at the end of the tunnel or out of danger, we are in the most serious part."
More than 21,000 patients with covid-19 are hospitalized in California.
And around 4,500 of them are in intensive care units.
As 2020 wrapped up, the US continued to beat daily records for deaths and hospitalizations from COVID-19.
Coronavirus hospitalizations skyrocketed in December.
The United States marked a new high in the daily number of hospitalized patients with 125,379, according to the Covid Tracking Project.
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The number of patients hospitalized for covid-19 soared
As the number of patients in hospitals soared more than 25% in December, the average number of deaths reported each day also increased significantly.
How dangerous are the new variants of covid-19?
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More than 3,740 deaths from coronavirus were reported Wednesday.
It is the highest amount recorded in a single day during the pandemic and the second consecutive day the record has been broken, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
And the outlook for this coming January is bleak.
More than 80,000 Americans could die from COVID-19 in the next three weeks.
based on a joint forecast from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The projection is known as vaccine distribution progresses.
However, the implementation according to the experts has been slower than they expected.
Vaccines will only have a significant impact once they are widely available to the public, which may not happen until the summer, experts said.
And many states report alarming trends.
In Georgia the average number of new daily COVID-19 cases is more than double what it was just six weeks ago.
There officials are preparing again to use the large Atlanta convention center as a medical center to handle the number of cases.
The Georgia World Congress Center "will begin accepting patients later this week," with 60 beds available, Governor Brian Kemp reported Thursday.
LOOK: It will take months before vaccines are widespread enough to change the course of the pandemic, experts say
Mississippi and Louisiana registered their highest number of cases in a single day on Wednesday.
New Orleans officials called for "extreme caution" on New Year's Eve.
Meanwhile, indoor facilities for bars, breweries and live adult entertainment venues closed Thursday.
In Nevada, there was a similar message.
Governor Steve Sisolak urged residents to avoid high-risk activities to slow the spread of the virus.
“I know that people want to celebrate the end of 2020, and I don't blame them.
But if we don't start making smart decisions in early 2021, we will look like a lot more and feel a lot more like 2020 than any of us would like, 'said the governor.
Texas reported a record number of hospitalizations for the fourth day in a row this Thursday.
Spread of the coronavirus in the US The
United States faces problems keeping the virus under control, as new cases are reported every day.
The gray bars represent the number of new cases reported each day.
The dashed red line shows the seven-day moving average.
Los Angeles County in California reached a grim milestone Wednesday: it surpassed 10,000 total deaths from covid-19.
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti told CNN's Jake Tapper: "This is what we all feared."
In that sense, he urged people to make their New Year's resolutions to stay at home and thus help stop the spread of the virus.
"We are still going to have our darkest and most difficult days," Garcetti said.
"We need to do a better job" in vaccine distribution, says official
More than 2.7 million doses of the vaccine have been applied, according to the latest figures from the CDC.
In addition, more than 12.4 million have been distributed in the United States.
The numbers are still a far cry from the 20 million vaccines officials initially promised by the end of the year.
The challenges of vaccination in the United States 0:58
“We have literally 10 million doses on the shelves across the country, waiting to be injected.
We need (vaccination) events, ”CNN medical analyst Dr. Jonathan Reiner, a professor of medicine at George Washington University, said Thursday.
"We need big events in football stadiums and racetracks," he added.
"We need to go into mass vaccination mode, and we have to do it now," he insisted.
State and local leaders have also raised concerns about the slowness.
In New York City, officials announced a plan to administer vaccines to 1 million people there by the end of January.
Which expands the figure to the 88,000 people who have currently received a dose.
The first of several city-operated vaccine centers, in places like school gymnasiums, will open in mid-January in the worst-hit neighborhoods, city Health Commissioner Dave Chokshi said Thursday.
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Overall, the CDC recommended that front-line health workers and residents of long-term care facilities be the first to receive vaccines.
But, a growing number of states are expanding their eligibility lists.
In Louisiana, a limited number of people age 70 and older, as well as outpatient health care workers, can begin getting vaccinated with appointments at pharmacies across the state starting next week, Gov. John Bel said Thursday. Edwards.
Pharmacies will begin receiving vaccinations for these people on Monday.
Georgia officials declared plans to add adults 65 and older, law enforcement officers, firefighters and first responders as eligible to receive a vaccine.
In West Virginia, people 80 and older could get vaccinated starting Wednesday, the governor said.
In Nevada, officials said people 75 and older will be included in Tier 2 of the state's Covid-19 vaccine distribution plan.
Also that they will be vaccinated at the same time as the first group of frontline workers in Nevada.
Residents between 65 and 74 years old and people with pre-existing health problems will be part of the level 3 group. As well as the second group of essential workers.
Deaths from covid-19 in the US
The gray bars represent the number of additional deaths reported each day.
The dashed orange line shows the seven-day moving average.
Three states register cases of the UK variant of covid-19
Officials in three states this week reported cases of a variant of Covid-19 first identified in the UK.
This strain, according to experts, is more transmissible than the previous ones.
In Florida, health officials said Thursday that preliminary test results show a man, in his 20s with no travel history, in Martin County has the UK variant.
California health officials announced Wednesday that the variant was detected in a 30-year-old San Diego man.
The person is not hospitalized and had very few social interactions during their potentially contagious period.
Covid-19 variant identified in the United Kingdom confirmed in the United States 1:22
"Understanding that you are here in San Diego really underscores the importance of what we have been asking for and we continue to ask everyone to do," said San Diego County Supervisor Nathan Fletcher.
«Wear face protection.
Avoid close contact with people you don't live with.
Avoid large indoor environments and do not leave your home unless it is essential.
The first known case of the UK variant in the United States was in Colorado, state officials said earlier this week.
At least 29 countries have reported cases of the variant, according to CNN reports.
The data suggests that the new covid-19 variant has been circulating undetected in the U.S. and that it has been transmitted from person to person, the CDC said.
'Public health authorities in Colorado detected a variant that was first identified in the UK.
It was in a person who reported no travel history.
The lack of a reported travel history suggests that this variant has been transmitted from person to person in the United States, ”said Dr. Henry Walke, CDC's Covid-19 Incident Manager.
There is no evidence that the variant causes more severe symptoms or an increased risk of death, Walke said.
However, it could lead to more cases and "put even more pressure on our overstretched healthcare systems," he added.
LEE: The new year brings the same problems with the delay in the distribution of vaccines
But vaccines that are distributed throughout the country will likely protect against the variant.
This is what the Undersecretary of Health, Admiral Dr. Brett Giroir, told CNN on Wednesday.
"We hope, we have not tested 100%, but we will soon, we hope that the vaccines that are being administered or in development cover this strain very well," Giroir said.
CNN's Rebekah Riess, Jason Hanna, Lindsay Benson, Maria Cartaya, Amanda Sealy, Andrea Diaz, Joe Sutton, Alexandra Meeks, Carma Hassan, Lauren Mascarenhas, and Gisela Crespo contributed to this report.
Covid-19 Hospitalizations Deaths from covid-19 Pandemic