U.S. COVID-19 hospitalizations hit record high 

New York, December 29 (RHC)-- The United States recorded over 168,000 new coronavirus cases Monday and 1,900 deaths.  Hospitalizations hit a new record high of more than 121,000, with 40% of all ICU beds nationwide now occupied by COVID patients.

In California, some Kaiser Permanente hospitals are now postponing non-urgent surgeries. The Martin Luther King Jr. Community Hospital in Los Angeles has converted its chapel and gift shop into makeshift COVID wards, and Huntington Hospital in Pasadena is rationing care for non-COVID patients who need ICU beds.

This comes as the Transportation Security Administration says it screened nearly 1.3 million people at U.S. airports on Sunday — the highest daily total since the start of the pandemic — as travelers shrugged off urgent pleas of public health officials to avoid travel during the pandemic.