COVID-19 updates: More than 10,000 new deaths reported in US in 1 week

The largest hospital in Alaska is beginning to ration care as COVID-19 patients flood the facility.

"While we are doing our utmost, we are no longer able to provide the standard of care to each and every patient who needs our help," Dr. Kristen Solana Walkinshaw, chief of staff at Providence Alaska Medical Center in Anchorage, wrote in an op-ed published Tuesday by The Anchorage Daily News. "The acuity and number of patients now exceeds our resources and our ability to staff beds with skilled caregivers, like nurses and respiratory therapists. We have been forced within our hospital to implement crisis standards of care."

"What does this mean? In short, we are faced with a situation in which we must prioritize scarce resources and treatments to those patients who have the potential to benefit most," she continued. "We have been required to develop and enact policies and procedures to ration medical care and treatments, including dialysis and specialized ventilatory support."

Walkinshaw explained how what happens at Providence Alaska Medical Center and other hospitals in Alaska's biggest city "impacts our entire state" because "many specialty cares can only be provided in Anchorage."

"People from all around Alaska depend on Providence to provide medical care for people statewide. Unfortunately, we are unable to continue to meet this need; we no longer have the staff, the space or the beds," she wrote. "Due to this scarcity, we are unable to provide lifesaving care to everyone who needs it. Our emergency room is overflowing; patients wait in their cars for hours to see a physician for emergency care. On a daily basis, our transfer center is unable to accept patients who sit in emergency rooms and hospitals across the state, people who need care their current facility is unable to provide. If you or your loved one need specialty care at Providence, such as a cardiologist, trauma surgeon or a neurosurgeon, we sadly may not have room now. There are no more staffed beds left."

Walkinshaw urged people to wear face masks, even if they are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, and to get the vaccine if they are eligible and have not done so yet.

"We ask that you help us to open our beds again so that we may continue to care for all Alaskans," she wrote.

Regeneron has reached a $2.94 billion agreement with the federal government to supply more doses of its monoclonal antibody cocktail to treat COVID-19.

Under the new agreement with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Defense, Regeneron will furnish another 1.4 million doses of the treatment by the end of January 2022. 

The one-dose therapy will be made available to any member of the American public who is eligible to receive it. It currently is authorized to treat COVID-19 patients ages 12 and up who have mild to moderate symptoms and are at high risk of severe illness.

The deal comes as orders of monoclonal antibodies from states have gone up 1,200% in recent weeks during the delta surge, ABC News reported last month.

Last week, the White House outlined plans to boost the average pace of weekly shipments of the treatment by 50%, as part of a new six-part strategy to combat the delta variant.

-ABC News' Sasha Pezenik

Active-duty soldiers must be fully vaccinated by mid-December, the Army announced in a statement Tuesday. 

Reserve and National Guard units will have until the end of June 2022 to be inoculated. 

“This is quite literally a matter of life and death for our Soldiers, their families and the communities in which we live,” Lt. Gen. R. Scott Dingle, the U.S. Army Surgeon General, said in the statement. 

Soldiers can request exemption on religious grounds and for legitimate medical or administrative reasons. 

Soldiers who refuse to receive full vaccination without an exemption could be subject to serious reprisals. 

"Commanders will request a General Officer Memorandum of Reprimand be initiated for any Soldier who refuses to be vaccinated and does not have a pending or approved exemption request. Such reprimands can be career ending," the statement said.

-ABC News’ Matt Seyler

The number of COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. is likely less than two weeks away from surpassing the 1918 pandemic death toll. 

In the H1N1 flu pandemic of 1918, an estimated 675,000 Americans lost their lives. To date, 662,000 Americans have lost their lives to COVID-19, according to data from Johns Hopkins University, meaning the U.S. is less than 13,000 confirmed coronavirus deaths away from surpassing that staggering death toll more than a century later. 

However, in comparing the pandemics it’s important to note that the population of the U.S. is significantly higher now than it was in 1918.

Even though the nation is 18 months into the pandemic, more than 1,000 Americans are still dying each day of the virus. It’s a sobering milestone as the national average of deaths had dropped to a near pandemic low of 191 deaths each day just two months ago. 

Now, death metrics are on the rise, and the U.S. vaccination rate has fallen in recent weeks. Since Aug. 10 the rate of Americans receiving their first dose declined by 42.7%. 

-ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos