As vaccine begins rolling out, US hits new record for hospitalizations and surpasses 300,000 deaths from COVID-19

GettyImages 1277244454 — Nevada and Arizona are currently the worst hit states in the US, with each seeing more than 500 people per milion hospitalized with COVID-19.
Ethan Miller/Getty Images

A record 110,000 people are currently hospitalized with the coronavirus in the US, The Covid Tracking Project announced Monday.
The number is nearly double that seen in the two previous COVID-19 surges the US has seen thus far.
Over 300,000 Americans have now died from disease.
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Nearly twice as many people in the United States were hospitalized with COVID-19 on Monday compared to the first surge of the the virus in April, with more than 300,000 Americans now dead from the disease.

According to The Covid Tracking Project, at least 110,549 people are currently in the hospital with the novel coronavirus. During the two previous big waves of infection, in April and July, less than 60,000 people were hospitalized.

Arizona and Nevada lead the nation in hospitalizations, with 505 people and 657 people per million, respectively, currently receiving medical care.

By contrast, Hawaii and Vermont are doing the best; neither state currently has more than 100 people per million in the hospital with the coronavirus.

—The COVID Tracking Project (@COVID19Tracking) December 15, 2020

The news comes amid another grim milestone: this week, the US surpassed 300,000 deaths from COVID-19, by far the highest recorded number in the world, per a count from by Johns Hopkins University. Brazil, the next closest country, has seen more than 181,000 deaths over the course of the pandemic.

By early next, as many as 362,000 Americans will be dead from the coronavirus, according to the latest forecasts analyzed by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"In January, we will pass 400,000 deaths," Dr. Ashish Jha, dead of public health at Brown University, said on Sunday. "Those deaths will come from infections that have already happened or will this week."

"Vaccines will help," he added. "But we can, must do more."

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