Coronavirus: US hospitalizations hit record high for 7th straight day

US Covid-19 hospitalizations hit a record high for the seventh day in a row Saturday with 108,487 patients in hospitals around the country.

Iran PressAmerica: And the number of Covid-19 cases reported in the United States reached more than 16 million after the country added 1 million cases in just four days, according to Johns Hopkins University data. 

It took the nation more than eight months to reach 8 million cases but less than two months to double that, as the number of new cases continues to soar.

The record hospitalizations come as a US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advisory committee voted Saturday to recommend the Pfizer and BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine for patients 16 and older.

CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield must accept the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices' (ACIP) recommendation before vaccinations can begin.

On Friday, as the US Food and Drug Administration authorized the Pfizer vaccine for emergency use, the US recorded more than 3,300 Covid-19 deaths -- the most ever in one day, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. More than 231,700 new cases were reported, another pandemic high.

There have been more than 100,000 Covid-19 patients in hospitals every day since December 2.

The US, which has now registered 305,082 fatalities, has by far the highest national death toll.

The overall number of global coronavirus cases has topped 72,106,000 million, while the deaths have soared to more than1,611,000.

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