The United States broke another coronavirus record on Monday, with more than 125,500 people currently hospitalized with COVID-19.
More than three-quarters of all intensive care beds were full across the country leading up to New Year’s Day, according to the New York Times. More than 20% of U.S. hospitals reported their intensive care units were at or above 95% capacity.
The news comes as testing in the U.S. struggles to recover from a holiday testing slump — the U.S. reported just more than 1 million tests on New Year’s Day, a testing low not seen since Thanksgiving, according to data from the COVID Tracking Project. Leading up to Christmas, the country averaged more than 2 million tests per day.
Despite the steep drop-off in testing volume, cases continue to surge due to a combination of backlogged holiday tests and increasing test positivity rates. The U.S. reported more than 204,000 cases on Sunday, making it the fourth day in five with more than 200,000 cases.
The national rolling test positivity average in the last week surged to 13.5%, the highest average since May, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. The World Health Organization recommends a benchmark 5% positivity rate before governments relax lockdown restrictions.
In spite of the surges, some states have yet to introduce new lockdown measures to match the accelerating spread of the virus. Missouri and Florida lifted most restrictions, according to USA Today, and eight other states eased them as the viral load worsens.
Despite more cases being reported, more people flew last week than at any other point in the pandemic. Since Christmas Day, only two days, New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day, saw fewer than 1 million passengers pass through TSA checkpoints — a feat of sustained air travel not seen since March.
Air travel for the year was still less than half that of 2019 levels, according to the TSA.
Deaths related to COVID-19 are also on the rise. As of Jan. 3, the U.S. was averaging more than 2,600 deaths every day — still shy of the record average of 2,659 deaths leading up to Christmas, but well above the worst of the pandemic’s early days last spring.
