US breaks daily coronavirus records as Fauci warns January will be ‘terrible’

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The US set three grim coronavirus records on Thursday, as it recorded the highest daily number of coronavirus deaths, the highest number of new cases, and the number of people admitted to hospital with Covid exceeded 100,000 for the second day in a row.

Some 2,879 people died from coronavirus, according to Johns Hopkins University, while there were 217,664 new cases, as the top infectious disease official, Dr Anthony Fauci, warned “January is going to be terrible”.

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Numerous states have warned that they are running out of intensive care beds, with 100,667 people currently in hospital with Covid,

The escalating figures came as California plans to implement a sweeping stay-at-home order in a desperate attempt to get coronavirus infections under control, and after President-elect Joe Biden said he would ask all Americans to wear face masks during his first 100 days in office.

Donald Trump stayed silent on the crisis on Thursday, as the total of number of people who have died reached 276,366.

The president is due to hold a rally in Georgia, which is seeing its highest number of coronavirus cases since August, on Saturday. Two Republican senators face runoff elections in the state in January.

In an interview with Newsweek, Fauci warned that the worst was yet to come in the US.

“I think January is going to be terrible because you’re going to have the Thanksgiving surge super-imposed upon the Christmas surge,” Fauci said.

“So it’s entirely conceivable that January could be the worst.”

Fauci, who has accepted Biden’s offer to serve as chief medical adviser, said he expected data to show a further rise in cases and deaths in mid-December – largely attributable to Thanksgiving gatherings.

“If you and I travel and then go home and have family dinners, you’re gonna see infections two to three weeks from there and then a week later you’ll see more hospitalizations and then two weeks later you’ll see more deaths,” Fauci said.

California is fast becoming one of the most severely hit states in the country, and its governor, Gavin Newsom, announced a series of new restrictions on Thursday.

Stricter stay-at-home orders will be implemented in areas in the state where intensive care units are expected to fall below a capacity of 15% – with the vast majority of the state expected to meet that criterion within the next few days.

“The bottom line is if we don’t act now, our hospital system will be overwhelmed,” Newsom said. “If we don’t act now, our death rate will continue to climb.”

The new stay-at-home order, the most far-reaching since the pandemic began in March, will include restrictions on business and gathering spaces – no salons, no gyms, no indoor worship, no playgrounds. Restaurants will be allowed to offer only takeout or delivery.

Retail that is already limited to 20% of customer capacity will be allowed to remain open, but all non-essential travel is restricted.

The record high number of cases came amid news that the recovery in the US jobs market collapsed in November.

The US added just 245,000 new jobs in November, less than the 638,000 jobs added in October, the 672,000 jobs added in September and the 1.4m jobs added in August. The unemployment rate fell to 6.7%.

With additional reporting by Dominic Rushe