The coronavirus outbreak in the United States continues to rage at a record pace ahead of the holiday season, with the nation's current situation eerily mirroring the viral surge not seen since last April. Just as the nation has set out to deliver its most broad and ambitious vaccination campaign in U.S. history, more deaths linked to the coronavirus are being reported each day than at any other time during the pandemic.
On Thursday alone, the U.S. recorded over 241,000 new infections and a hurrowing 3,438 new deaths.
California, the country's most populous state, has become the nation's newest hotspot, although the outbreak is concentrated to the lower portion of the state. On Thursday, the state recorded nearly 52,300 new infections, which is equal to the entire nation's outbreak recorded back in October, and a one-day record 379 deaths.
The state currently has over 16,000 patients hospitalized with severe infection and more than 3,000 requiring intensive care, according to The COVID Tracking Project. And the hospitals are nearly reaching their capacities. Statewide, California reported just 3% availability of intensive care beds with some counties reporting less than 1% availability.
As the nation continues to grapple with surging caseloads that threaten more lockdowns, there still is a light at the end of the tunnel with vaccines. The tunnel, unfortunately is longer than many have hoped.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, said on Wednesday that the U.S. may be able to return to some state of normalcy by mid-fall if enough people are vaccinated.
"If we can get the overwhelming proportion of the population vaccinated by let's say the end of the second, the beginning of the third quarter, by the time we get into mid-fall of 2021, we can be approaching some level of normality," Fauci told CNBC's Meg Tirrell.
Echoing other U.S. health officials, Fauci projected that between 75% and 85% of the population will need to be vaccinated against the coronavirus for the nation to enter a state of herd immunity, or the point where the virus can no longer spread easily throughout a community.
On Thursday, the Food and Drug Administration's (F.D.A.)Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee voted 20 to 0 to recommend that the regulatory agency issue an emergency use authorization for Moderna's (NASDAQ: MRNA) coronavirus vaccine candidate. The recommendation comes exactly one week since the independent group of health experts voted to extend the same approval of the Pfizer (NYSE: PFE)-BioNTech (NASDAQ: BNTX) vaccine, which was authorized for emergency use by the F.D.A. the following day.
Moderna's possible authorization from the regulator could come as early as Friday, thus expanding early access to a vaccine in the U.S. and abroad.