'We Didn't Have To Be Gutted': Virus Claims Nurse's Husband, Mom

ACROSS AMERICA — In the final moments of Dennis Jennings' life, his wife, Lizanne, reassured him. Before he succumbed to COVID-19, Lizanne comforted him by telling him her mother was fine — that she was at home and would be staying with Lizanne.

But that wasn't the case. Lizanne's mother was already dead, another life claimed three days earlier by the disease caused by the coronavirus.

"I knew he would keep fighting if I told him my mom had already died. And so they started giving him morphine and Ativan," Lizanne, an ICU nurse in Oklahoma City, told CNN. "I turned him over and I rubbed his back. I said, 'I love you.' He said, 'I love you.' And I said, 'You're going to go now, OK? You can finally be at peace.'"

Dennis took his last breath 30 minutes later.

Lizanne Jennings' husband and mother are among the nearly 273,000 people in the United States who have lost their lives to COVID-19.

In her interview with CNN, Lizanne struggled to keep her composure. At times, she said it feels like she and her two sons are "drowning."

"As we go down, we're trying to push the other one back up to take a breath," she said. "It didn't have to be this way .... Our family didn't have to be gutted."

Read the full story at CNN.com.

The Latest

Coronavirus deaths, cases and hospitalizations in the United States are at an all-time high.

Deaths reported in the country on Wednesday were 2,885, the most ever for a single day, according to New York Times data. New daily cases rose above 200,000 for the first time ever.

More than 100,000 people were hospitalized with the virus as of late Wednesday, according to the independent Covid Tracking Project. That's more than double the amount of hospitalizations reported during the virus's spring peak, The Times said.

Hospital bed shortages have been reported in several states — Rhode Island, New Mexico and California, to name a few.

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases since the start of the pandemic in the United States neared 14 million Thursday. More than 274,000 Americans have died of the virus.

And the worst is yet to come, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert Redfield.

Redfield on Wednesday predicted the U.S. COVID-19 death toll could reach 450,000 by February, and he warned this winter could be “the most difficult time in the public health history of this nation.”

Meanwhile on Wednesday, the United Kingdom became the first country to grant approval to the coronavirus vaccine developed by pharmaceutical giant Pfizer. Distribution of the first 800,000 doses will begin next week, with the elderly and nursing home residents receiving first priority, according to The Washington Post.

A day earlier, members of the Trump administration summoned Dr. Stephen Hahn, the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, to the White House to explain why U.S. regulators have not yet approved the Pfizer vaccine.

Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff, called for the session out of concern that the British government would approve the vaccine before the United States, hence embarrassing the Trump administration. The meeting was reported earlier by Axios.

So far, reports from drugmakers Pfizer and Moderna have touted a vaccine effectiveness rate at higher than 90 percent. AstraZeneca has said trials show its vaccine's effectiveness at higher than 78 percent.

Citing the spiraling rise in coronavirus cases nationwide, the CDC on Wednesday warned Americans not to travel over the holidays.

The agency also outlined new recommended quarantine times for people who may have been exposed to the coronavirus, especially those who may choose to travel anyway.

After previously recommending a 14-day quarantine period, the CDC now says those without symptoms may end quarantine after seven days, followed by a negative test for the virus, or after 10 days without a negative test.

The CDC decided to shorten the recommended times in hopes it would prompt compliance from many Americans.

A day prior, a CDC panel also met to craft guidance on who should get the coronavirus vaccine first once it's approved in the United States.

The CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices deemed health care workers and residents and staff of nursing homes to be the highest-priority group to be vaccinated in "phase 1A," the Post and others have reported.

But the guidance released by the CDC is exactly that — guidance. The decision on how to distribute the vaccine and who should receive it first will ultimately fall to states.

Finally, it has still been less than a year since the first coronavirus case was confirmed in the United States, but recent research suggests the virus may have been here before that first case was reported on Jan. 19.

An analysis of CDC data shows coronavirus antibodies were found last December in a number of blood samples taken by the American Red Cross in California, Oregon and Washington state.

Newest Numbers

At least 2,798 new coronavirus deaths and more than 200,740 new cases were reported in the United States on Wednesday, according to a Washington Post database. Over the past seven days, the United States has averaged more than 164,000 cases each day.

As of Thursday, 44 states and Puerto Rico remained above the positive testing rate recommended by the World Health Organization to safely reopen. To safely reopen, the WHO recommends states remain at 5 percent or lower for at least 14 days.

More than 13.9 million people in the United States had tested positive for the coronavirus as of Thursday morning, and more than 274,500 have died, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.

Stay up to date on the latest coronavirus news via The New York Times or Washington Post.

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