The coronavirus death toll in the USA has topped 250,000, as fears grow that hospitals in the country are becoming overwhelmed.
Conditions in medical centres across the states are deteriorating by the day, with the number of people in the hospital with Covid-19 doubling in the past month – and setting new records every day this week.
As of Tuesday, nearly 77,000 people were hospitalised with the virus – and there are warnings that some facilities will be forced to ration care or even turn patients away.
Meanwhile, the daily case count is running at an average of around 160,000. That’s a surge of more than 80% over the past two weeks, to the highest levels on record.
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Cases are growing in all 50 states and nationwide deaths are now averaging more than 1,155 per day – the highest in months.
The only health care system in the Appalachian mountains of Tennessee and Virginia is warning that it is stretched so thin that it is only a matter of time before its hospitals will have to turn patients away.
The health system reported having just 16 available ICU beds and about 250 team members in isolation or quarantine. It is trying to recruit hundreds more nurses.
In Idaho, doctors warned that hospitals have almost reached the point where they need to ration care, unable to treat everyone because there are not enough beds or staffers to go around.
Dr Jim Souza, chief medical officer for St Luke’s Health System, said: ‘Never in my career did I think we would even contemplate the idea of rationing care in the United States of America.’
New York City cancelled school on Wednesday, meaning that more than 1 million students will be taught virtually.
The city has seen a mounting infection rate after being badly hit in the spring and appearing to beat the virus back months ago.
Across the country, governors and mayors are taking similar steps to cope with the out-of-control surge, while outgoing President Donald Trump appears to be more concerned about overturning the result of the election, which he lost to Joe Biden earlier this month.
State leaders are enforcing mask wearing and limiting the size of private and public gatherings ahead of the Thanksgiving celebration.
Indoor dining has also been banned, gyms closed and other businesses having their opening hours restrictions.
In Texas, thousands of additional medical staff are being sent to overrun hospitals as the number of hospitalised Covid-19 patients statewide accelerates toward 8,000 for the first time since a deadly summer outbreak.
Lara Anton, a spokeswoman for the Texas Department of State Health Services, said more than 5,400 extra medical personnel have been deployed around Texas by the state alone.
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