The United States has exceeded 4,000 deaths a day coronavirus for the first time, breaking a record set just a day earlier. The Johns Hopkins University account shows that the US had 4,085 deaths from COVID-19 on Thursday.
The United States had nearly 275,000 new cases of coronavirus. More than 365,000 Americans have died from coronavirus since the pandemic began.
The figures are another reminder of the worsening situation following the trip for holidays and family reunions, along with more time indoors in the winter months. There has been an increase in cases and deaths in Arizona, Texas and Florida and California, where some hospitals are about to rationale for care.
Jae C. Hong / AP
A hospital in Los Angeles County is so overwhelmed by patients with COVID-19 that it has now assembled a triage team that would ultimately decide the fate of critically ill patients.
“The hospital system is bent as much as it can be bent, and the next sound can be fast,” said Cliff Daniels, chief strategy officer at Methodist Hospital in Southern California.
“Unimaginable decisions should be made to deny care to people who need it because there are no resources available,” he said. “We haven’t reached that stage. We’re on a pace to get there.”
Some hospitals are so packed, patients are sent hundreds of miles away for treatment.
The state’s emergency medical services have set up an oxygen depot in Riverside County to help increase the number of COVID-19 patients, according to CBS Los Angeles. The oxygen tank, which consists of two large oxygen generators that will fill the large tanks used by hospitals, will increase local oxygen supply.