Covid continues to rage

The US ICU bed stock is more than 78% occupied, with more than 22.7% of beds occupied by patients with coronavirus, according to US Department of Health and Human Services data updated Thursday.

It said 63,300 of the 80,800 ICU beds are occupied, with 17,400 of those occupied by covids. "This has not been seen before, even at the peak of previous covid waves. What we're experiencing now is a complete takeover of intensive care units," Dr James Phillips, head of disaster medicine at George Washington University Hospital, commented on CNN.

A total of 579,000 people (77.25% of the country's bed capacity) are currently being treated in US hospitals, of which 90,700 have been admitted with the coronavirus.

More than 512,500 cases of the new coronavirus were identified in the United States on Tuesday, December 28, the highest daily increase since the pandemic began, according to Johns Hopkins University, which calculates based on federal and local authorities. In total, more than 53.7 million people in the USA have been infected with the coronavirus since the pandemic began, with more than 821 000 deaths. The country continues to have the largest number of cases in the world for the two indicators.