After angry rioters and supporters of President Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol in a last stand for the outgoing president, the United States has tallied its deadliest day of the coronavirus pandemic for the second straight day. On Thursday, more than 4,000 people died of covid-19 in the United States, the first time the toll has exceeded that milestone, following a record day Wednesday of 3,915 deaths. The pandemic has now claimed more than 363,000 lives in the United States. More than 265,000 new coronavirus cases were reported, the second-highest count in a day according to a Washington Post analysis. More than 132,000 people are battling covid-19 in hospital beds, the most the nation’s health-care system has taken on.

Meanwhile, members of Congress spent hours convened during proceedings meant to count the electoral college votes of President-elect Joe Biden. Those proceedings were interrupted when hordes of rioters — many maskless — forced their way through barricades, some scaling the walls of the Capitol building, in a violent day that ended with four people dead. Overnight, shaken lawmakers affirmed Biden’s win.

Craig Spencer, director of Global Health in Emergency Medicine at New York-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center, had just walked away from receiving his second coronavirus vaccine dose when he saw news of rioters descending on the Capitol.

He said if not for the siege on the Capitol — in addition to fatigue with news related to the pandemic — the story of the day late Wednesday might have been the record death count.

“We’re a year into this and we set a record death toll yesterday, and it’s going to be higher sometime in the next week and higher again in the coming weeks,” he said, adding: “Unlike this massive acute onslaught of insurrection … people have just gotten used to the fact that thousands of people will die.”

“With an insurrection fomented by the person in power, on the same day there was a record death toll fomented by the person in power that’s basically given up, and not talking about and not seemingly concerned with the fact that every week we see another record set,” he said.