Wednesday Was Our Deadliest COVID Day in Months

The US recorded almost 1,500 coronavirus deaths Wednesday, making it the pandemic's deadliest day since mid-May, according to the Washington Post. The figures include 105 deaths in Georgia, 342 in Texas, and 45 in North Carolina, tying the single-day death record the state set on July 29. The US has now recorded more than 166,000 COVID-19 deaths and close to 5.2 million infections, according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker. The Post reports that at a Wednesday evening news conference, President Trump pushed for schools and businesses to reopen, saying "all schools should be making plans to resume in-person classes as soon as possible" and repeating a threat to divert federal funds from schools that don't reopen.

The true coronavirus death toll in the US, however, may have already passed 200,000, according to a New York Times analysis of excess deaths. The Times notes there have been around 200,000 more deaths than usual nationwide since March, and the pattern of excess deaths has followed the pandemic's path from the Northeast to the South and West, which "suggests that the official death counts may be substantially underestimating the overall effects of the virus." (More coronavirus stories.)