US sets records for coronavirus deaths and hospitalizations

Record-high coronavirus infections and hospitalizations have been reported in the US, as health care officials say their staff and facilities are struggling to support burgeoning numbers of patients.

More than 2,800 coronavirus deaths were reported in the United States on Wednesday -- the most the country has ever reported in a single day – while the number of new COVID-19 patients who were admitted to hospitals yesterday were 100,226, according to the COVID Tracking Project.

This is while a number of experts have predicted the daily death count could regularly surpass 2,000 and 3,000, and perhaps approach 4,000, according to CNN.

"By this time next week, we are going to be talking about 3,000 deaths a day -- that's 9/11 every single day," Dr. Jonathan Reiner, a cardiologist and professor of medicine at George Washington University, told CNN on Wednesday.

The latest one-day death total of 2,804 surpassed the previous one-day high of 2,603 set on April 15, according to Johns Hopkins University data.

Earlier, Johns Hopkins University erroneously reported 3,157 deaths on Wednesday, but that count was corrected Thursday morning.

The head of the CDC warned on Wednesday the COVID-19 pandemic will pose America's grimmest health crisis yet over the next few months, before vaccines become widely available.

One year on, the coronavirus has infected over 64 million people and killed more than 1,492,000 others, according to Johns Hopkins University data.

The US stands on the top of the list of the most affected countries, with more than 14 million confirmed cases of infection and over 274,000 deaths.

The projected winner of the 2020 disputed US election, Joe Biden, has accused President Donald Trump of mishandling the virus crisis.

Trump, however, has repeatedly put the blame on China. "It's China's fault, it should never have happened," Trump said in his first presidential debate against his Democratic rival, Biden, in October, before referring to the virus as the "China plague."

But according to a report on Wednesday, the coronavirus infected people in the United States weeks before it was officially identified in China.

US scientists said the pandemic could have originated elsewhere in the globe and was silently spreading earlier than thought.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that the virus was present in the US about a month earlier than public health authorities found the first case of COVID-19.

The CDC study is based on a new analysis of blood samples that the US Red Cross collected between December 2019, and January 2020.

COVID-19 was present in US earlier than identified: American scientists

A new government study finds the coronavirus was present in the US earlier than identified in mid-December last year.

This is while Biden has promised that more COVID-19 aid would be on the way, saying he would act quickly to provide more resources to fight the health crisis after his January 20 inauguration.

"My transition team is already working on what I will put forward to the next Congress to address the multiple crises we’re facing, especially the economic crisis and COVID," Biden told the workers at a roundtable in his home state of Delaware.

Republicans and Democrats are trying to break a months-long logjam in Congress over a stimulus package for businesses affected by coronavirus shutdowns as well as the millions of Americans who have lost jobs.

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