U.S. surpasses grim milestone of more than 3,000 covid deaths in a day, a new record

For the first time during the coronavirus pandemic, the United States surpassed 3,000 deaths in one day, according to data compiled by the Covid Tracking Project.

The project, which tallies state-level coronavirus data, reported 3,054 covid-19 related deaths on Wednesday night— a significant jump from the previous single-day record of 2,769 on May 7. The U.S. is averaging a staggering total of more than 200,000 new cases every day.

BREAKING—United States recorded more than 3,000 #COVID19 deaths in a single day, a pandemic record.

➡️US also now topped 296k confirmed deaths—more deaths than all US military combat deaths during WWII fighting in Germany, France, Italy, North Africa, and the Pacific—combined. pic.twitter.com/vzWFvYZ3Ph

— Eric Feigl-Ding (@DrEricDing) December 10, 2020

More than 290,000 people have died from the coronavirus across the country since the beginning of the pandemic this spring.

BREAKING: U.S. Passes 3,000 Daily COVID-19 Deaths, with 3,243 pic.twitter.com/PMdOvJGRfe

— Seth Abramson (@SethAbramson) December 10, 2020

The grim milestone comes as two vaccine candidates appear to be on the verge of clearing the nation’s final regulatory hurdles.

Some officials said vaccinations could begin as soon as this weekend and states have designed plans for what is likely to be a distribution effort of unprecedented dimensions, Reuters reported.

A panel of independent medical experts are scheduled to meet Thursday to decide whether to recommend that a vaccine from Pfizer and German partner BioNTech should receive emergency use authorization of the Food and Drug Administration.

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— Penn. governor tests positive. https://t.co/i69qb4RzJn

— ABC News (@ABC) December 10, 2020