A record number of people died in the U.S. from Covid on Tuesday and Wednesday, when a mob of angry Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol during a riot.
A record 3,733 people died from the virus on Tuesday, followed by 3,865 deaths Wednesday, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. Over the past seven days, the country reported an average of 2,686 fatalities every day — a figure second only to the record set a little over two weeks ago.
Holiday festivities have led to a predicted explosion in Covid-19 cases that have overwhelmed hospitals across the nation as a vaccine rollout got off to a rocky start. Over 361,200 people in the U.S. have died of the disease since the virus arrived in the U.S. nearly 12 months ago. Since then, almost 1 in every 914 U.S. residents has died of the coronavirus since the pandemic began, according to a Reuters analysis.
D.C.'s health department on Wednesday said it halted vaccinations early after a mob of President Donald Trump's supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol building, prompting the mayor to impose a 6 p.m. curfew across the city and delaying the certification of President-elect Joe Biden's victory in the 2020 presidential election.
The number of new daily cases continues to soar, as well. The country reported over 253,100 new cases on Wednesday, bringing the seven-day average up over 222,600, the highest it's ever been, according to a CNBC analysis of Johns Hopkins University data. That's an indication of more deaths to come over the next few weeks as diagnosed people are hospitalized and some die.
Arizona, California and West Virginia reported record-high daily deaths, based on a seven-day average, according to Hopkins data. The seven-day average of daily new cases continues to grow by at least 5% in 47 states and the District of Columbia, indicating an expanding outbreak.
Across the country, more than 132,400 are hospitalized with Covid, the highest yet, according to the COVID Tracking Project, which was established by journalists at The Atlantic.
The grim numbers come as U.S. officials race to pick up the pace of what's been a slower-than-anticipated rollout of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. Federal officials including Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and Trump vaccine czar Moncef Slaoui have acknowledged that they had hoped the vaccine would be rolled out faster.
More than 17.2 million doses of vaccine had been distributed as of Wednesday, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but just over 5.3 million doses have actually been administered. Top officials at the CDC, including Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, have said they expect the rollout to pick up speed this month.
