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Welcome to Prognosis. I'm Laura Carlson. It's day 300 since coronavirus was declared a global pandemic.

Today's main story, in the UK, where a fast-spreading variant of the virus was first detected, the outbreak is raging.

The government is banking on a strict new lockdown to save the health care system

from buckling. But first, here's what happened in virus news today.

The United States had its deadliest day yet from the pandemic.

On Thursday, for the first time, the country exceeded 4,000 daily fatalities.

It's a number that was once unthinkable.

The data were compiled by Johns Hopkins University and Bloomberg.

Around 277,000 new cases were reported nationally on Thursday. That's among the highest numbers

for the entire pandemic, as states report surging cases following the holidays.

Hospitalizations also hit a record, according to the COVID tracking project.

A new study shows that the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer and Bio-Ntech may protect

against the new, fast-spreading variants of the

coronavirus. The study, done by researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch and

supported by the two drug companies, honed in on a crucial mutation in the virus's spike

protein that is common to both fast-spreading variants.

Antibodies in the blood of people who had been vaccinated were able to neutralize a lab-created

version of the mutant virus. Finally, Italy is among several European nations who are tightening up restrictions in the face of a surging virus.

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