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The United States on Thursday shattered records for the number of coronavirus-related deaths on a single day, topping 4,000 fatalities for the first time. Experts worry that the new, more contagious strain of the virus that has already been detected in eight states could make matters worse. “We are in a race against time,” Jennifer Nuzzo, an epidemiologist with the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, told The Washington Post. “We need to increase our speed in which we act so that we don’t allow this virus to spread further and allow this variant to become the dominant one in circulation. The clock is ticking.” (Noori Farzan, 1/8)

In just less than two weeks, the US recorded its five deadliest days since the Covid-19 pandemic's start -- with more than 4,000 virus-related deaths reported Thursday. The nation's total Covid-19 death toll has now climbed to more than 365,300, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. And another nearly 115,000 people could lose their life over the next four weeks, according to projections from the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. (Maxouris, 1/8)

Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the top infectious disease expert in the United States, predicted on Thursday that the daily death toll from the coronavirus would continue to rise for weeks to come, and counseled patience with the vaccination program gearing up across the nation. In an interview with NPR, Dr. Fauci said the high toll was likely to continue, and was probably a reflection of increased travel and gatherings over the holidays. “We believe things will get worse as we get into January,” he said. He stressed that it was still possible to “blunt that acceleration” by strictly adhering to public health measures like social distancing and mask wearing. (1/8)

The virus is surging in several states, with California hit particularly hard, reporting on Thursday a record two-day total of 1,042 coronavirus deaths. ... Meanwhile, the number of Americans who have gotten their first shot of the COVID-19 vaccine climbed to at least 5.9 million Thursday, a one-day gain of about 600,000, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Johnson and Pane, 1/8)

The number of people dying of Covid-19 in Los Angeles County in a day is now equivalent to the number of homicide deaths the city saw in an entire year, Mayor Eric Garcetti said in a Thursday news conference. "Yesterday we had 259 deaths, that's one more than all the homicides in 2019 in L.A. city combined," he said. "In a single day, equal to a year of homicides." (Moon and Maxouris, 1/8)

Arizona has become "the hottest hot spot" for COVID-19, as the state experiences the highest case rates in the world and record hospitalizations -- and health officials warn the numbers are only going to get worse due to holiday gatherings. (Deliso, 1/7)

Florida broke its record for the highest single-day number of coronavirus cases since the pandemic began, tallying 19,816 new cases on Thursday, while the state’s death toll reached 22,400. Statistics from the Florida Department of Health on Thursday showed the totals surpassed the previous single-day record, which was 17,783 cases on Wednesday. Since the pandemic started in March, about 1.4 million people in Florida have contracted COVID. As of 3 p.m. Thursday, 7,331 people in the state were hospitalized with the virus. (Farrington and Lush, 1/7)

The total number of Georgia National Guardsmen who have tested positive for COVID-19 has more than doubled to 800 since last summer, when hundreds were dispatched to help fight the spread of the disease and boost security amid the protests for racial justice. They represent nearly 6% of the 13,791 guardsmen who have tested positive nationwide. (Redmon, 1/7)

Infectious disease experts on Thursday identified more potential fallout: That the Capitol invasion may have been a COVID-19 super-spreader event that could result in thousands of new cases and deaths. “It’s the perfect storm,” said Yvonne Maldonado, an infectious disease expert at Stanford University. The elements of a super-spreader event were all there: hundreds of people congregated together, mostly maskless, yelling and screaming for prolonged periods of time. The rioters were also from all over the country and will be traveling back to their communities, increasing the risk of multiple surges while the country is already experiencing a record explosion of cases and a highly transmissible new variant has begun circulating in the U.S. (Vainshtein, 1/7)

The mob that stormed the Capitol on Wednesday did not just threaten the heart of American democracy. To scientists who watched dismayed as the scenes unfolded on television, the throngs of unmasked intruders who wandered through hallways and into private offices may also have transformed the riot into a super-spreader event. ... “It has all the elements of what we warn people about,” said Anne Rimoin, an epidemiologist at the University of California, Los Angeles. “People yelling and screaming, chanting, exerting themselves — all of those things provide opportunity for the virus to spread, and this virus takes those opportunities.” (Mandavilli, 1/7)