Coronavirus deaths reach 4,000 per day as hospitals remain in crisis mode

Hospitals around the country remain filled beyond capacity, threatening the quality of care provided both to coronavirus patients and people suffering other medical emergencies.

Why it matters: We're beginning to see more than 4,000 coronavirus deaths a day, and heart attacks and car accidents are still happening, whether or not the local hospital has any room left.

• Arizona, Georgia, Texas, Delaware, South Carolina and Virginia are currently experiencing record hospitalizations.
• Some patients' conditions will likely worsen without timely medical care.

Zoom in: Officials in Los Angeles County, where beds have been set up in hallways and patients wait hours in ambulances to be admitted to the emergency room, per the L.A. Times , said yesterday that hospitals likely haven't seen the effects of the end of the holiday season.

• Hospitals in Southern Nevada are filling up, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reports, with one Las Vegas hospital issuing a disaster declaration recently — which is a "very fancy way of saying rationing care," said Joe Corcoran, chief medical officer overseeing HCA Healthcare hospitals in Nevada and California.

The bottom line: Vaccines may be the dominant story in the news right now, but the situation on the ground is still dire.