Researchers say ‘very low’-quality research led to outdated guidelines on who got the best PPE, leaving those most at risk exposed

• Lost on the frontline: the healthcare workers who died of Covid

Since the start of the pandemic, the most terrifying task in healthcare was thought to be when a doctor put a breathing tube down the trachea of a critically ill Covid patient.

Thousands more deaths expected this season as more transmissible strain spreads and vaccinations move slowly

More than 400,000 Americans have now been killed by the coronavirus, a horrific marker of the misery the virus has spread across the country, as the rate of deaths from Covid-19 increases.

The latest death toll comes as thousands more deaths are expected in a bleak American winter with widespread Covid transmission, as a more transmissible strain spreads across the country and a mass vaccination campaign gets off to a slow start.

The project has counted 2,921 healthcare worker deaths, with the majority of people who died under the age of 60

As of 6 January, Lost on the frontline has counted 3,132 healthcare worker deaths. The pandemic is not over, and this project is therefore a work in progress, with new names added weekly.

US has almost twice as many confirmed coronavirus cases as the next worst-hit country, India, and almost 350,000 have died

The US marked the first day of 2021 by surpassing the dismal landmark of 20 million coronavirus cases, as hospitals, undertakers, vaccine administrators and ordinary families struggled across the nation.

More than 10,000 Americans died in the last three days of 2020 as the year finished with the pandemic, which has never been under control in the US since the start of the outbreak last January, breaking all the wrong world records.

New analysis shows a far higher number of healthcare worker deaths than those reported by the government

• Lost on the frontline interactive: the healthcare workers who have died in the pandemic

More than 2,900 US healthcare workers have died in the Covid-19 pandemic since March, a far higher number than that reported by the government, according to a new analysis by the Guardian and KHN.

Healthcare worker fatalities from the coronavirus skew young, with the majority under age 60 in the cases for which there is age data. People of color were disproportionately affected, and account for over 65% of fatalities in cases in which there is race and ethnicity data. After conducting interviews with relatives and friends of about 300 victims, Guardian and KHN learned that one-third of the deaths involved concerns over inadequate PPE.

A look into the battle against Covid-19 in hospitals across the United States

Across the US a Covid surge has swamped hospitals as the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said December, January and February would be ‘rough times’ for the country.

Dr Robert Redfield said he believed the US was facing its ‘most difficult time in the public health history of this nation’, adding that about 90% of hospitals in the country were at stretched capacity

• US logs a record 3,157 coronavirus deaths in one day
• Coronavirus – latest updates
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• Midwest hospital says most staff were not infected at work
• ‘It shows you how easy it is to get Covid-19 in the midwest’
• Interactive: the healthcare workers who have died from Covid

More than 900 employees at Mayo Clinic, a top research hospital that is based in Rochester, Minnesota, have contracted Covid-19 in the last two weeks.