More Americans were hospitalised with Covid-19 on Wednesday than at any time since the pandemic began, as coronavirus infections and deaths soared across much of the United States and a historic vaccination effort lagged, according to Reuters.

US Covid-19 hospitalisations reached a record 130,834 late on Tuesday, according to a Reuters tally of public health data, while 3,684 reported fatalities was the second-highest single-day death toll of the pandemic.

With total Covid-19 cases expected to surpass the 21 million mark on Wednesday, pressure mounted on state and local officials to speed up distribution of the two authorised vaccines from Pfizer Inc and partner BioNTech SE and Moderna Inc.

The lack of a federal blueprint for the crucial final step of getting the vaccines into tens of millions of arms has left officials in charge of the monumental effort, creating a patchwork of different plans across US states.