U.S. has deadliest day of the coronavirus pandemic since May

A health care worker puts on PPE.
(Image credit: Megan Jelinger/AFP via Getty Images)

Nearly 2,100 COVID-19 deaths were recorded in the U.S. on Tuesday, The Washington Post says — the highest daily number since May 6, when 2,611 deaths were reported.

Nine states — Alaska, Indiana, Maine, Missouri, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Washington, and Wisconsin — all reported a record number of fatalities.

More than 85,000 people are hospitalized with the virus across the U.S., setting a new record for the 14th day in a row, the COVID Tracking Project reports. The Department of Health and Human Services released a report stating that there are more than 1,000 U.S. hospitals that are "critically short on staff," CBS News reports, and the death rate is climbing so fast in El Paso that there are 14 mobile morgues now stationed in the city.

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Dr. Hassan Taha with Stormont Vail Health in Topeka, Kansas, told CBS News that there are more than 100 coronavirus patients at the hospital, which has reached capacity. "What is worrying to me is two weeks from now Thanksgiving and having a lot of cases that will end up coming to us, or to other hospitals, and there's no beds," Taha said.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.