WASHINGTON: The United States set a double-high on Wednesday, recording more than 3,700 deaths and more than 250,000 new cases of Covid-19 in 24 hours on Wednesday, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
The country has experienced a dramatic increase in Covid infections for more than a month, with some 113,000 people currently hospitalized due to the virus, also a new record, according to data from the health and human services department.
The count marks the third time last week that the United States has exceeded the 3,000 death toll. The previous 24-hour record was set in late April at the height of the country’s first wave, which never quite ended.
Over the past two weeks, the number of new cases of Covid-19 in 24 hours has exceeded 200,000 in 11 of 14 days.
The exact number of deaths on Wednesday was 3,784 fatalities during the previous 24 hours until 8:30 p.m. (Thursday 1:30 GMT).
Health officials had feared that the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday in late November would lead to a new outbreak of the coronavirus after millions of Americans traveled to join friends and family.
Now experts fear the situation will be even worse after the end-of-year celebrations, including the Christmas holidays.
The latest records were set even as the United States suffered its first week of a massive vaccination program aimed at stopping the growing pandemic.
The first Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine injections were administered in the United States on Monday, although authorities warn that it will still be months before a sufficiently large portion of the population is immunized.
Faced with the urgency of the situation and fears of a shortage of vaccines, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said Wednesday that six or even seven doses could be extracted from the vials that allegedly contained only five doses per avoid discarding the unused vaccine.
“At this time, given the public health emergency, the FDA reports that it is acceptable to use all full doses that can be obtained,” he said in a tweet, adding that Pfizer was on board with the recommendation.
The country has experienced a dramatic increase in Covid infections for more than a month, with some 113,000 people currently hospitalized due to the virus, also a new record, according to data from the health and human services department.
The count marks the third time last week that the United States has exceeded the 3,000 death toll. The previous 24-hour record was set in late April at the height of the country’s first wave, which never quite ended.
Over the past two weeks, the number of new cases of Covid-19 in 24 hours has exceeded 200,000 in 11 of 14 days.
The exact number of deaths on Wednesday was 3,784 fatalities during the previous 24 hours until 8:30 p.m. (Thursday 1:30 GMT).
Health officials had feared that the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday in late November would lead to a new outbreak of the coronavirus after millions of Americans traveled to join friends and family.
Now experts fear the situation will be even worse after the end-of-year celebrations, including the Christmas holidays.
The latest records were set even as the United States suffered its first week of a massive vaccination program aimed at stopping the growing pandemic.
The first Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine injections were administered in the United States on Monday, although authorities warn that it will still be months before a sufficiently large portion of the population is immunized.
Faced with the urgency of the situation and fears of a shortage of vaccines, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said Wednesday that six or even seven doses could be extracted from the vials that allegedly contained only five doses per avoid discarding the unused vaccine.
“At this time, given the public health emergency, the FDA reports that it is acceptable to use all full doses that can be obtained,” he said in a tweet, adding that Pfizer was on board with the recommendation.