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Our Health reporter Jessica Glenza has this latest update on the Covid pandemic in the US:
More Americans are dying of Covid-19 than at any time during the pandemic, the most complex mass vaccination campaign in history is off to a rocky start, and more transmissible strains of the coronavirus are emergent. January is going to be a bleak month.
Related: US suffers bleak January as Covid rages and vaccination campaign falters
According to the Johns Hopkins university figures, yesterday there were 229,386 new coronavirus cases confirmed, with 3,769 further deaths in the US. 128,947 infected people are currently in America’s hospitals.
At the current rate of daily fatalities, the US death toll from the pandemic – currently at 388,377 – is on course to surpass 400,000 before Joe Biden is sworn in next week.
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