Peter Wells
The US on Tuesday had its biggest one-day jump in coronavirus deaths in nearly seven months, while hospitalisations reached a record of more than 98,000.
States attributed a further 2,473 deaths to coronavirus, more than double Monday’s increase of 1,136, according to Covid Tracking Project data.
It was the biggest one-day jump in fatalities since the May 7 record of 2,752 and ranks as the sixth largest of the pandemic according to Financial Times analysis of the data.
For the month of November, coronavirus claimed the lives of 38,935 people in the US, taking the overall death toll in the country to 261,789.
That made it the deadliest month of the pandemic for the country overall after April and May, when fatalities were mostly concentrated in northeastern states like New York and New Jersey, as well as Michigan in the Midwest. However, a total of 26 states reported their biggest monthly tally of Covid-19 deaths in November.
The number of people currently in US hospitals being treated for coronavirus more than doubled during November, hitting a record of 98,691 on November 30, according to data from Covid Tracking Project on Tuesday.
Medical staff prepare to perform a tracheostomy on a Covid-19 patient at United Memorial Medical Center in Houston
About two-thirds of all states reported their highest number of hospitalisations for the pandemic during November, while Hawaii is the only place where hospital admissions are lower than at the end of October.
A further 176,751 Covid-19 cases were reported by states, up from 147,588 on Monday and compared with 167,012 on Tuesday last week. It was the biggest one-day jump since the November 27 record of 193,805.
During November, the US confirmed 4.39m cases, more than any other month, taking the total number of infections in the country to 13.5m.
The seven-day average case rate of every state except New York, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, South Carolina and Washington DC, reached a record high during November, according to an FT analysis of Covid Tracking Project data.
Increased testing capacity since the summer means cases may not be directly comparable with earlier stages of the pandemic, while better treatments has typically meant fatality rates are much lower than during the spring.