Deadliest COVID-19 day kills 3.8K; California sends out 5K body bags

The U.S. recorded more than 3,800 deaths on Tuesday, the deadliest day of the pandemic and third day this week that deaths exceeded 3,000.

New cases are running at over 212,000 a day on average. And the number of Americans in the hospital with COVID-19 hit another all-time high Tuesday of about 113,000.

California is distributing 5,000 body bags mostly to the hard-hit Los Angeles and San Diego areas and has 60 refrigerated trailers standing by as makeshift morgues. The state was averaging 163 virus deaths per day, up from 63 just two weeks ago.

Before noon Thursday, California reported a one-day record of 379 coronavirus deaths and nearly 106,000 new confirmed cases in last two days.

Many California hospitals are running out of space in intensive care wards, as the state records an average of about 32,500 new virus cases a day. That is up from about 14,000 a day at the start of the month.

“Our hospitals are under siege and our models show no end in sight,” said Los Angeles County Health Services Director Dr. Christina Ghaly.

In Fresno County, officials said just a few ICU beds remained available and were filling rapidly. To keep up, the county’s hospital system has contracted with a Virginia company to supply doctors, nurses and others to staff a temporary 50-bed facility that will start receiving patients by the end of the week.

In Orange County, health officials planned to send large tents to four hospitals to help accommodate patients.

Bruce Barton, EMS director for Riverside County, said a couple of hospitals hit capacity in the past week and local officials had to step in to take some bodies.

Hospitals are also under pressure in Arizona, where a record 92% of beds are filled, nearly half of them with people with COVID-19.

“That’s a staggering statistic when you think about the things that can afflict people,” said Dr. Joshua LaBaer, executive director of Arizona State University’s Biodesign Institute. “And it certainly means that hospitals at this point are having to make decisions about keeping people out of the hospital to keep beds available for the COVID patients.”

Moderna vaccine closer to OK

A second COVID-19 vaccine moved closer to joining the U.S. fight against the pandemic Thursday as government advisers convened for a public review of its safety and effectiveness.

It’s the next-to-last step for the vaccine developed by drugmaker Moderna and the National Institutes of Health. The panel of physicians and medical researchers is expected to endorse it, followed by the Food and Drug Administration’s OK within hours or days.

The action would provide a boost to the largest vaccination effort in U.S. history that kicked off this week. More shipments of the first green-lighted vaccine, developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, were going out Thursday, earmarked for health care workers and nursing home residents around the country.

A second vaccine is urgently needed as coronavirus infections, hospitalizations and deaths continue to rise in the U.S. ahead of holiday travel and gatherings that are expected to further fuel the pandemic.

The FDA’s Dr. Doran Fink opened the daylong meeting reiterating that the agency’s review would be “transparent, scientifically sound and data-driven.”

Moderna’s vaccine is largely following the same path as Pfizer-BioNTech’s, which relies on the same groundbreaking technology. Most traditional vaccines use dead or weakened virus, but both of the new vaccines use snippets of COVID-19’s genetic code to train the immune system to detect and fight the virus. Both require two doses, weeks apart.

Nursing homes getting vaccine

The first COVID-19 vaccinations are underway at U.S. nursing homes, where the virus has killed more than 110,000 people, even as the nation struggles to contain a surge so alarming it has spurred California to dispense thousands of body bags and line up refrigerated morgue trucks.

With the rollout of shots picking up speed Wednesday, lawmakers in Washington closed in on a long-stalled $900 billion coronavirus relief package that would send direct payments of around $600 to most Americans. Meanwhile, the U.S. appeared to be days away from adding a second vaccine to its arsenal.

Nursing home residents in Florida began receiving shots Wednesday, after nearly 2,000 such vaccinations were administered in West Virginia on Tuesday. Thousands more are scheduled there in the coming days. Other states are expected to follow soon.

France’s Macron tests positive

France’s Elysee Palace says President Emmanuel Macron has tested positive for COVID-19.

It said the president took a test “as soon as the first symptoms appeared.” The brief statement did not say what symptoms Macron experienced.

It said he would isolate himself for seven days. “He will continue to work and take care of his activities at a distance,” it added.

It was not immediately clear what contact tracing efforts were in progress. Macron attended a European Union summit at the end of last week, where he notably had a bilateral meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. He met on Wednesday with the prime minister of Portugal. There was no immediate comment from Portuguese officials.

Macron on Wednesday also held the government’s weekly Cabinet meeting in the presence of Prime Minister Jean Castex and other ministers. Castex’s office said that the prime minister is also self-isolating for seven days.

The French presidency confirmed that Macron’s trip to Lebanon scheduled for next week is being canceled.

Gaza Strip outbreak swells

The Gaza Strip has recorded more than 1,000 coronavirus cases in one day for the first time since an outbreak began there, threatening to further overwhelm the territory’s decrepit health system.

Out of 2,474 tests, 1,015 were positive, the Health Ministry said Thursday. Twelve people have also died in the past 24 hours, the ministry added, raising the death toll to 232.

Gaza has recorded more than 31,000 infections since the virus began to spread in the densely populated Palestinian territory in August.

An Israeli-Egyptian blockade on the Hamas-run territory that limits travel, as well as strict quarantine measures by the militant group, delayed the arrival of the virus. But ever since it began spreading through the population over the summer, the infected have quickly filled up hospitals. The Health Ministry says it has begun transferring COVID-19 patients to wards meant for other patients.

Gaza’s ailing health care system has long been overburdened, gutted for years by the blockade and intra-Palestinian political feuding.

Bulgaria extends lockdown

Bulgaria’s government is extending a nationwide lockdown until the end of January, as the number of new coronavirus infections and fatalities remain high and is putting pressure on the overloaded health care system.

All non-food shops, nightclubs, restaurants, cafes and gyms remain closed. Conferences and congresses are banned.

Secondary schools will stay closed while primary schools will reopen on Jan. 4.

The government had to deal with strong pressure from businesses to ease the lockdown during the holidays and allow people to celebrate as usual.

“We have always put the lives and health of the people first, so we will continue to implement these measures,” Prime Minister Boyko Borissov said on Thursday.

Health authorities said the country is ready to kick off its COVID-19 inoculation campaign once the vaccines are approved in the EU.

The Balkan country of 7 million has had 186,246 confirmed cases, including 6,196 deaths.

Denmark shuts down nationwide

Denmark is shutting down nationwide, with shopping malls and department stores ordered to close as of Wednesday and small shops — except for food stores and pharmacies — told to shut as of Dec. 25.

Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said the restrictions will apply until Jan. 3. Hairdressers and beauty shops will close as of Dec. 21.

Frederiksen said she was “deeply concerned about how it will go in the coming winter months,” adding that Denmark’s “health care system is under pressure.”

“An epidemic that is running out of control will have major consequences, and greater consequences than shutting down now,” she said.

The Scandinavian country has has 119,779 confirmed cases — up nearly 4,000 in the past day — and 975 deaths — up 14.

Toyko infections on steady rise

Tokyo reported 822 new cases of the coronavirus, a new high for the Japanese capital.

Infections have been on the steady climb nationwide for several weeks. Japan on Friday reported 2,988 new cases for a total of 187,103, including 2,739 deaths.

Experts on the Tokyo task force raised caution levels for the medical systems to the highest, suggesting that most Tokyo hospitals have little extra manpower or beds to continue their ordinary treatment for other patients.

“We must stop further acceleration of the infections,” Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike said. “In order to prevent serious cases and deaths and save the medical systems from collapsing, I ask for everyone to cooperate.”

Second adverse reaction in Alaska

Health officials in Alaska have reported that a second health care worker had an adverse reaction to a COVID-19 vaccine.

Bartlett Regional Hospital in Juneau says the two workers showed adverse reactions about 10 minutes after receiving the vaccine and were treated. One received the vaccine Tuesday and will remain in the hospital another night under observation while the other, vaccinated Wednesday, has fully recovered.

U.S. health authorities warned doctors to be on the lookout for rare allergic reactions when they rolled out the first vaccine, made by Pfizer and Germany’s BioNTech. Britain had reported a few similar allergic reactions a week earlier.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.