Coronavirus-related deaths are at their highest levels since the spring.

On April 15, 2,752 people in the U.S. died from Covid-19, more than on any other day of the pandemic. On Wednesday, 2,300 deaths were reported nationwide — the highest toll since May. The pandemic has now claimed more than 264,800 lives in the country.

While the deaths during the spring peak were concentrated in a handful of states, they are now scattered widely across the entire nation, and there is hardly a community that has not been affected. Above, a Covid patient in Houston last week.

“We are at risk of repeating what happened in April,” one expert said of the death toll. “I shudder to imagine what things might be like in two weeks.”

The record-breaking swell of virus infections — four million in November alone — is pushing U.S. hospitals to a breaking point. Severe staffing and bed shortages are crippling efforts to provide adequate care for patients.
The New York Times