Iran Press/America: California is distributing 5,000 body bags mostly to the hard-hit Los Angeles and San Diego areas and has 60 refrigerated trailers standing by as makeshift morgues as the US, especially California, are witnessing a surge of coronavirus deaths from hospitalizations that now are double the summertime peak and threaten to overwhelm the hospital system, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Tuesday.
The number of average daily deaths has quadrupled from 41 a month ago to 163 now, while positive cases have surged to more than 32,500 each day. Of those new cases, an anticipated 12% will wind up in the hospital and 12% of those hospitalized will crowd already stretched intensive care units.
One day's worth of cases can be expected to produce a staggering 3,900 hospitalizations and nearly 500 ICU patients.
Meanwhile, The New York Times said the Trump administration is negotiating a deal to use its power to free up supplies of raw materials to help Pfizer produce tens of millions of additional doses of its COVID-19 vaccine for Americans in the first half of next year.
Health experts are warning it's likely the US won't see any meaningful, widespread impacts from vaccinations until well into 2021.
The coronavirus pandemic has sickened more than 73,367,500 people, according to official counts. As of Tuesday evening, at least 1,631,000 people have died, and the virus has been detected in nearly every country, as these maps show.
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