New York: The number of COVID-19 patients being treated in hospitals across the United States has reached 90,000 after nearly doubling in the past month, just as holiday gatherings are expected to propel the next wave of infections.

The rate of hospitalisations – now at the highest level since the pandemic began – has pushed some hospitals beyond capacity, and comes after weeks of rising infection rates across the country. That is likely to increase as people who mingled with relatives and friends over Thanksgiving on Thursday gradually get sick, health experts say.

Many health experts and politicians pleaded with Americans to refrain from gathering for their traditional communal Thanksgiving feasts this year, warning that socialising between households would accelerate the rate of community transmission and push an already strained healthcare system to the brink.

Some abided by the public health guidance, spending their Thanksgiving seeing their family over video calls. But others chose to travel anyway.