More than 2700 people died with coronavirus on Wednesday alone.

That's the highest figure since the pandemic began.

The country has been hit by a surgeon.

Coronavirus INFECTIONS More than 100,000 Americans are in hospital on health resources are becoming increasingly stretched.

The top disease control official, Dr Robert Redfield, has worn the next three months could be the most difficult in America's public health history.

And he said, the U.

S is facing a devastating winter unless public health advice is heated.

You know, we looked at the original spring.

We lost about 100,000 people summer 100,000 people to fall 100,000 people, these air, you know, sacred lives that were lost as a consequence of this pandemic.

We're potentially looking at, you know, another 150 to 200,000 people before we get into everywhere.

So this is really ah, significant time.

While the mayor of Los Angeles has issued an emergency order for the city's residents to stay at home with immediate effect following what health officials described a terrifying increase in cases off the disease Peter Chin Hong is a professor of medicine andan infectious disease specialist at the University of California, San Francisco.

Good to talk to you, Peter.

Again.

Just tell us how things are there.

Well, things are very grim right now.

Current, we've had the fourth straight day of increase in hospitalizations.

And, of course, once we see our hospitals being filled up on our ice, you beds being taken were in dire straits.

How close are you to that point?

Or have you reached that point already?

Well, there is some variation across the state in some counties, for example, uh, in northern California, there is upwards of 90% occupancy of ice.

You beds in other counties?

80%.

In my own hospital, we've seen 2 to 3 times increase in hospitalizations due to covet in the last month alone.

That is a next ROrdonez increase in a relatively short time, Peter.

I mean, I just wonder what What is going wrong?

That we have reached this point and it seems to just be getting worse there.

Yes.

So there are three main factors I think that make this way very different from the previous waves in the US The first is, of course, the season.

In previous waves, people were able to mitigate risk by going outdoors.

Currently, there is no respect, so people are gathering Mawr indoors.

The second, of course, is pandemic fatigue.

Some of recast to this as pandemic resentment.

On the third, of course, is the fire that's covered all around the country so that there's no riel, you know, escape, so to speak.

California's being boxed in after having a relatively unscathed past on Peter.

It was Thanksgiving, What just a week ago.

I mean, I suppose we're yet to see the impact that that may yet have exactly.

And that's why it's very dire right now because it's a surge on top of a surge.

And when you think about Christmas, that's a surge on top of the surge on top of the surge.

So in Thanksgiving, that was a record.

Travel the for the U.

S.

For the year, with more than a million people traveling.

So if you think about that, that's really going to be, uh, looking really bad.

And about two weeks, right?

So as we've been hearing from many officials, the worst could still be yet to come?

Yes, exactly.

And we're just bracing ourselves right now.

You've talked about capacity and I see you reaching what, 80 to 90% in full in some places.

Just tell us what it is like in hospitals at the moment.

What is it like in your hospital?

So I think what it's like.

I mean, it's very quiet, eerily quiet.

It's austere people, a little bit demoralized because off just a marathon that the last few months have been we thought we would be over it by now.

But it's even getting worse.

And I think we're just trying toe brace ourselves to the last mile of the marathon where it seems that we're running out of water, right?

You say you're approaching the last mile of the marathon.

How much hope?

How much energy does it give you?

That perhaps you could be seeing a turning point with the vaccine soon to arrive?

Yes.

So I think the vaccine is a light at the end of the tunnel, but it will take some time to fully rollout.

Healthcare workers are gonna be prioritized.

What?

My hospital is gonna be one of the first seven hospitals in the state to get it.

So we're planning that right now.

Eso On December 10th, the FDA will meet Toe formally approve.

It were a little bit behind the U.

K Andi hours after it said that will begin distributing these vaccines to health care workers.