The month of December has seen the highest U.S. death toll from COVID-19 since the pandemic began, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
Public health officials have asked Americans not to travel for the holidays as cases and hospitalizations surged after Thanksgiving gatherings, but airport travel has been ticking up.
A new strain of the coronavirus from the U.K. — which is thought to be more transmissible, but not more lethal — is also causing concern. More than a dozen other countries, including the U.S. and Canada, have reported cases of the new variant.
But mass vaccination campaigns are underway in the U.S., the U.K. and the European Union, among other countries and regions, bringing a sense of a light at the end of the tunnel.
There have been more than 85.1 million cases of the coronavirus recorded worldwide since the pandemic began, with more than 1.8 million deaths.
A HuffPost Guide To Coronavirus
- How long does it take for the coronavirus vaccine to work?
- Which masks will actually keep your face warm this winter?
- Can you close your COVID “bubble” without losing friends forever?
- How will spending the holidays in quarantine affect our mental health?
- What happens to all those face masks and gloves we’re tossing in the trash?
- Find all that and more on our coronavirus hub page.