US Sees Record Single-Day COVID-19 Deaths, Maryland Sets Hospitalization Record
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- The U.S. saw its highest number of COVID-19 deaths in a single day since the start of the pandemic.
The Johns Hopkins COVID-19 data tracker on Friday reported a record 4,085 people died in the U.S. in a single day as a result of the virus. That broke the previous record that occurred just a day before.
Maryland is adding to those troubling numbers, too. The state now has 6,047 coronavirus deaths and more than 299,000 confirmed cases, just a few hundred shy of 300,000.
Johns Hopkins University experts say we may be seeing the start of a post-Christmas surge.
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"Often the surges happen a bit silently at first, meaning that they are people who travel, maybe people who are healthier and not likely to be the ones that develop the more severe symptoms, but they can still get it and pass it on to others and that could take some time," Jennifer Nuzzo, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security at the Bloomberg School of Public Health, said.
The desperation is visible in overwhelmed hospital halls across the country.
President-elect Joe Biden recently announced he will release stockpiled doses of the coronavirus vaccine so more people can get access to it.
Gov. Larry Hogan talked about Maryland's progress Friday on MSNBC.
"We are getting vaccines out quickly," the governor said. "We've done over 100,000 of them in the last couple of weeks and we are ramping up every day. We had a record day today."
Local jurisdictions are also seeing a spike.
Baltimore's health commissioner said 671 people have died in the city. Mayor Brandon Scott said he will continue to watch the numbers before he lifts restrictions.
"We know this is tough, we know this is hard, but we also know that people are dying and that's the most important thing that we have to understand," Scott said.
For the latest information on coronavirus go to the Maryland Health Department's website or call 211. You can find all of WJZ's coverage on coronavirus in Maryland here.