As the United States marches closer to distributing a COVID-19 vaccine, the nation experienced one of its highest single-day death toll in its 243-year history on Wednesday, which saw over 3,000 Americans die from the novel coronavirus, making it one of the deadliest days in American history and the deadliest so far during the pandemic, the Associated Press reported Thursday afternoon.

At the time of publication, this bone-chilling number makes Wednesday deadlier than both the first day of the 1944 D-Day invasion of France (2,500) and the September 11, 2001 attacks (2,977).

For additional perspective, prior to this month, the December 7, 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor (2,403) was arguably the fourth-deadliest day in U.S. history, which President Franklin D. Roosevelt called “a date which will live in infamy”. Recent single-day COVID-19 death tolls have been significantly topping that of Pearl Harbor, pushing that day down the list.

The two single-deadliest days are typically agreed to be the 1862 Battle of Antietam (3,600) from the Civil War and then the 1900 Galveston Hurricane (8,000).

So far, the pandemic has taken the lives of more than 290,000 Americans, with well over 15 million confirmed cases, according to Johns Hopkins University. Reporting 3,124 deaths on Wednesday, this makes it the deadliest day of the pandemic for the United States to date, with April 15 previously holding that record with 2,603 deaths.

Unfortunately, trends don’t point to the virus’s spread slowing down in the immediate future. In just five days, the U.S. has seen its number of cases rise by one million. On top of that, more than 106,000 infected Americans in hospitals, which is causing many of them to run low on space and staff.

New pandemic-related records, however, are being set almost every day now.

Despite the data painting a grim picture for the United States’ current situation, the future does hold some promise.

A U.S. government advisory panel endorsed Pfizer’s vaccine late on Thursday, with a final decision from the Food and Drug Administration approving the shot expected in days, per the AP. The FDA is widely expecting to follow the panel’s recommendation. While shots could start being distributed to frontline medical workers and others in days, the vaccine availability to the general public is expected to not happen for months.

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