The United States has been breaking coronavirus records on a daily basis, but this morning the nation hit a harrowing new milestone.
Overnight, the US recorded 3,046 Covid-19 deaths in a single day, a pandemic record. That's more than the entire death toll of the 9/11 attacks in 2001 which claimed the lives of 2,996 people.
The number of new cases also rose back above 200,000 and hospitalisations due to the virus hit a record for the third day in a row.
One American is dying of coronavirus every 30 seconds as Dr Anthony Fauci, the chief US health expert, warns the country faces a "crisis situation" in the months to come.
"The effect of Thanksgiving is going to be realised two weeks from now, literally as we are getting into the travelling season for Christmas and Hanukkah," Fauci said last week.
"I'm appealing to the American public to please realise that this is real. This is not fake, this is not a hoax. Literally every day another record is broken."
So far, the US has recorded 15,089,621 virus cases and a total of 285,643 deaths – figures that are much worse than those seen in hard-hit developing nations like India and Brazil.
There has been a 24 per cent increase in new cases across America in the past week alone.
The US is expected to grant emergency authorisation for the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines this week, after each reported they were 94.5 to 95 per cent effective against Covid-19 in trials.
"The vaccine's critical," Dr Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus response co-ordinator, told NBC News.
"But it's not going to save us from this current surge. Only we can save us from this current surge."
Several Assad allies, including Maher and Mamlouk, sought refuge in Russia and Lebanon.