Daily COVID-19 death toll in the US passes 3,000 - more than the death toll from the 9/11 tragedy

vigil nurses covid-19 — Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images

According to the COVID Tracking Project, on Wednesday the US recorded its highest COVID-19 daily death toll to date, with 3,054 recorded deaths.
The staggering number of deaths surpasses the death toll across New York City, Washington, DC, and Pennsylvania on 9/11 when a series of terrorist attacks killed 2,977 people.

As states are registering peak numbers of COVID-19 hospitalizations, cases, and deaths, a macabre record has been passed: On Wednesday, the US' reported daily COVID-19 deaths surpassed the number of people who died on 9/11.

According to the COVID Tracking Project, US states registered 211,027 new cases and recorded an all-time high of 102,888 new COVID-19 patients hospitalized.

There were 3,054 reported deaths related to COVID-19, which is the US' highest single-day total to date.

An analysis by CNN, taking into account the four separate attacks on 9/11, found that 2,977 people were killed on the day.

On Wednesday, the 7-day average for COVID-19 deaths is also at an all-time high as deaths continue to rise. Today's toll breaks the previous single-day record for COVID-19 related deaths, which was on May 7, at 2,769 deaths.

As states initially lagged with reporting due to the Thanksgiving holiday, cases, deaths, and hospitalizations are continuing to rise, with public health experts warning that through the holiday season and winter, the US could continue to see death tolls higher than 3,000 per day.

—The COVID Tracking Project (@COVID19Tracking) December 10, 2020

Dr. Scott Gottlieb, the former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), told CBS News' "Face The Nation" last week that he believes, "We're going to see consistently probably 2,000 deaths per day and as we get into January toward the peak, we're going to see over 3,000 deaths per day, unfortunately, and maybe get close to 4,000 deaths per day."

Several experts who spoke to Newsweek last week echoed the same sentiment. Dr. Peter Drobac, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Oxford, said, "We might be experiencing 9/11 a day by Christmas."

Lauren Ancel Meyers, a professor at the University of Texas at Austin and director of a COVID-19 Modeling Consortium used the CDC, told Newsweek that they are projecting that with a Thanksgiving spike, between 1,500 to over 3,000 people will die from COVID-19 each day for the rest of the year.

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