The United States on Wednesday crossed an ominous new threshold of more than 3,250 lives lost to COVID-19 in a single day while public health officials stepped up preparations for a vaccine campaign of historic scope ahead of final regulatory review.
Steady movement toward a vaccine rollout on the eve of a critical review by leading U.S. medical experts comes as COVID-19 caseloads surged alarmingly higher, straining health care systems in some pandemic hot spots to the breaking point.
Intensive care units at hundreds of hospitals in cities and rural communities across the country were reported to be at or near capacity, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services data showed.