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US tops 4,000 daily deaths from coronavirus for the first time

Published:Friday | January 8, 2021 | 1:13 PM
Physical therapist Daniel Lumbera helps a COVID-19 patient sit up on his bed at St Joseph Hospital in Orange, California Thursday, January 7, 2021. The state's hospitals are trying to prepare for the possibility that they may have to ration care for lack of staff and beds — and hoping they don't have to make that choice, as many hospitals strain under unprecedented caseloads. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

ORANGE, California (AP) — The United States topped 4,000 coronavirus deaths in a single day for the first time, breaking a record set just one day earlier, with several Sun Belt states driving the surge.

The tally from Johns Hopkins University showed the nation had 4,085 deaths Thursday, along with nearly 275,000 new cases of the virus — evidence that the crisis is growing worse after family gatherings and travel over the holidays and the onset of winter, which is forcing people indoors.

Overall, the scourge has left more than 365,000 dead in the US and caused nearly 22 million confirmed infections.

Cases and deaths are soaring in California, Arizona, Texas, and Florida.

Those four states had a combined nearly 1,500 deaths and 80,000 cases on Thursday.

Thursday ranks as one of the deadliest days in US history, with the COVID-19 toll far outstripping the nearly 3,000 killed on 9/11 and exceeding the combined total of nearly 3,900 US lives lost on D-Day and at Pearl Harbour.

Many hospitals in Los Angeles and other hard-hit areas are struggling to keep up and warned they may need to ration lifesaving care.

Many nurses are caring for more sick people than typically allowed under the law after the state began issuing waivers to the strict nurse-to-patient ratios.

More than 132,000 people nationwide are hospitalised with the virus.

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