U.S. coronavirus deaths cross 300K as help arrives

[NFA] The death toll from COVID-19 crossed 300,000 since the start of the outbreak in the United States on Monday, as help began to arrive in the form of a vaccine.

Even then, Dr. Anthony Fauci says it won't be until at least late fall or early winter 2021 before it's acceptable to "throw the mask away." Gavino Garay reports.

From New York to Los Angeles, Americans got the first doses of the recently-approved Pfizer vaccine on Monday.

As the U.S. passed another staggering milestone: 300,000 deaths from the coronavirus.

With cases surging and hospital resources stretched to the brink, last week was the deadliest in the United States since the pandemic began, as 17,000 Americans died from COVID in one week alone.

Martha Navarro, an ICU nurse manager in Los Angeles in an interview with Reuters, held back tears as she described the intense toll the crisis is taking on health care workers.

"I cry, there are times when I cry in the car.

I'm sorry.

Having to see my family, explaining to them why maybe I am not emotionally ready or prepared to be sharing a dinner with them, or why I am not there with them because I have to stay here long hours.

They say they understand, but in reality when a 16-year-old needs his mother and she's not there, it's difficult, very difficult." ICU nurse Sandra Lindsay became one of the first Americans to receive a vaccine dose on Monday in New York City.

And in Washington D.C., Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar was on hand for the inoculations of some of the first frontline workers at George Washington University Hospital.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, said that while the vaccine would provide much needed relief, Americans won't be out of the woods anytime soon.

FAUCI: "I don't believe we're going to be able to throw the masks away and forget about physical separation, then congregate settings for a while, probably likely until we get into the late fall and early next winter." More than half of U.S. states have enacted new lockdown restrictions, as many hospital intensive care units are nearly full.

Healthcare workers and nursing home residents will be first to get the two-dose vaccine regimen given three weeks apart.

Next will be essential workers, as determined by individual states, and elderly people with underlying health conditions.

But Dr. Fauci said for all the progress that's been made in the battle against COVID, there is much science still doesn't understand about the virus.

FAUCI: "There's something very strange about a virus that in most people barely bothers them, and in others it kills them.

We still don't know why that's the case and we need to find that out."