Jay Inslee, the Governor of the US state of Washington has
asked the federal government to provide military personnel to the state so that
it can help in staffing hospitals and long-term care facilities in response to
the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to a letter made public on Monday, Governor Inslee
said to the Joe Biden administration that “in Washington State, our hospitals
are currently at or beyond capacity, and we need additional assistance at this
time.”

The letter was sent on Friday to Jeffrey Zients, the White
House pandemic coordinator, the Associated Press reported.

Inslee noted in the letter that the state Department of Health has requested
1,200 clinical and non-clinical staff and said that he is requesting deployment of
military medical personnel “to assist with the current hospital crisis.”

While the delta-fueled surge in infections may have peaked
in the country, deaths due to COVID-19 in the United States are running at over
1,900 a day on average, the highest level since early March, and the country’s
overall toll topped 675,000 on Monday, according to the count kept by Johns
Hopkins University, though the real number is believed to be higher.

Winter may bring a new surge, with the University of
Washington’s influential model projecting an additional 100,000 or so Americans
will die of COVID-19 by January 1, which would bring the overall US toll to
776,000.

If the virus changes significantly, a new vaccine using the
technology behind the Pfizer and Moderna shots could be produced in 110 days, a
Pfizer executive had said on Wednesday. The company is studying whether annual
shots with the current vaccine will be required to keep immunity high, the
Associated Press reported.