US

COVID-19 Hospitalizations Reach Record High In The US

The number of Americans hospitalized with coronavirus rose above 90,000 for the first time since the pandemic began in March, according to pandemic trackers.

The milestone came on Thursday as millions of Americans traveled across the country to celebrate Thanksgiving, which many public health experts believed would lead to another spike in cases in the next few weeks. As of Thursday, the U.S. has 90,481 coronavirus hospitalizations, according to The COVID Tracking Project.

Of those, nearly 18,000 are in an intensive care unit and nearly 6,000 are on ventilators. Additionally, the project notes that the totals are likely higher, since several states did not report their daily totals due to the holiday.

The partial reporting was reflected in Thursday’s daily new case count, with the U.S. reporting just over 125,000 new daily cases, down from over 150,000 the day before, according to Johns Hopkins University’s database.

Over 1,200 Americans died from the virus on Thanksgiving as well, according to Johns Hopkins.

Despite the growing concern from public health experts over an expected spike in cases and deaths, promising vaccine developments have increased the chances that they begin nationwide distribution before the end of 2020.

The U.S. has recorded almost 12.9 million coronavirus cases since the pandemic began, and over 263,000 Americans have died, according to Johns Hopkins.