My local ABC TV station emails me updates on the virus.
Here is the latest:
COVID-19 is now killing faster than at any point in 2020. And the new year just started.
The U.S. reported its highest number of COVID-19 deaths in one day Tuesday: 4,327, according to Johns Hopkins University.
The five highest daily tallies for new infections and new deaths have all occurred in 2021.
Over the past week, the U.S. has averaged more than 3,300 deaths per day, a jump of more than 217% from mid-November.
Many experts aren’t surprised after widespread holiday gatherings, casual get-togethers with friends and weeks of record-high hospitalization numbers.
More than 131,300 people are now hospitalized with COVID-19, according to the COVID Tracking Project.
Clinical Nurse Zachary Petterson tends to a COVID-19 patient in the intensive care unit at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center during the coronavirus pandemic in San Jose, Calif., Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2021. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
Although vaccinations continue to lag behind predictions, health experts are begging Americans to hunker down in their bubbles for these next few months as soaring hospitalizations lead to record daily deaths.
Climbing case numbers will likely continue this winter, but better months are coming, according to Dr. Paul Offitt, a member of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee.
Mass vaccinations, warmer weather, a new presidential administration and a population building immunity could lead to a “dramatically better†summer, he said.
Two “remarkably effective†vaccines are already being administered, and two more vaccines — from Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca — “are right around the corner,†Offitt said.
If another 55% to 60% of the population can be vaccinated — something Offit said can be done if the U.S. gives 1 million to 1.5 million doses a day — “then I really do think that by June, we can stop the spread of this virus.â€