With U.S. hospitals overrun, surgeon general urges Americans to 'hold on'

A boy is wheeled on a stretcher to an ambulance at the entrance of the emergency room at University Medical Center amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in El Paso, Texas, U.S. November 23, 2020. REUTERS/Ivan Pierre Aguirre

(Reuters) - U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams on Tuesday pleaded with Americans to grasp "the severity of the moment" and remain vigilant against the coronavirus pandemic, as record hospitalizations pushed healthcare professionals to the brink.

"We are almost to a vaccine. ... We've got new remedies out there. We just need you, the American people, to hold on a little bit longer," Adams, a White House Coronavirus Task Force member, told Fox News in an interview.