The United States on Thursday reported a daily world record of more than 55,000 new cases of coronavirus as infections increased in the vast majority of states and the top public health expert from the United States spoke of a “very disturbing week.”
Hospitals in some of the new hot spots in the southern and western United States are in crisis and overwhelmed. Florida reported nearly 10,000 new cases in the past 24 hours, and that state along with Texas, Arizona, and California together accounted for almost half of all new infections.
The daily count for the US was 55,274 new cases late on Thursday, beating the previous single-day record of 54,771 set by Brazil on June 19 and surpassing single-day records for any European country in the high point of the outbreak there.
“What we’ve seen is a very disturbing week,” said Anthony Fauci, a leading federal health expert with the White House coronavirus task force and long-time director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, in a transmission. live with the American Medical Association.
The increase this month, after a steady improvement in California and a continuous improvement in the previous pandemic center, New York, was attributed in part to Americans who do not cover their faces in public or follow other guidelines or rules of distancing. social like states quickly. they lifted their locks.
Fauci warned that if people did not begin to comply, “we are going to have serious difficulties.”
Cases are now increasing in 37 of 50 states. Donald Trump went to the golf club on Friday morning, before planning to fly to South Dakota for a pre-July 4 celebration on Friday night at Mount Rushmore, where fireworks will be detonated and no social distancing will be required of despite the wildfire and Covid -19 transmission warnings and also despite protests by Native Americans that the monument is on stolen land.
The President of the United States also tweeted Thursday night (sic): “There is an increase in coronavirus cases because our tests are so massive and so good, so much bigger and better than any other country.” This is great news, but even better news is that death and death rate are DOWN. Also, younger people, who get better much easier and faster!
There is an increase in Coronavirus cases because our tests are so massive and so good, so much bigger and better than any other country. This is great news, but even better news is that death and death rate are DOWN. Also, younger people, who get better much easier and faster!
– Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 3, 2020
In California, positive tests increased 37%, but hospitalizations increased 56% in the past two weeks.
Patients with severe Covid-19 cases are flooding hospitals in the southern and western states. Mississippi, Tennessee, Texas, Nevada and Arizona set hospitalization records on Thursday.
Fauci warned that the virus “is not close” under control in the United States.
Some Arizona hospitals are rushing to expand capacity in the way many New York City hospitals were forced to live up to the outbreak there, when up to 800 people died every day in April, the Washington Post reported Friday. . That means doubling hospital beds in rooms, stopping nonessential surgery, and recruiting additional health workers from outside their regions.
Arizona officials have activated “crisis care standards”: protocols for who receives urgent care first or a ventilator. State officials on Thursday reported a record 3,013 Covid-19 hospitalizations in Arizona.
Fauci said of the situation in the United States: “We are establishing records, practically every day, of new cases in the reported numbers. That is clearly not the right direction. “
Younger people represent more new cases than ever before, due to a rapid return to social gatherings, contrary to federal guidelines.
But infections and deaths are on the rise overall. A month ago, the United States reported approximately 20,000 new infections per day, and that has more than doubled. Confirmed cases of coronavirus in the US have reached 2.75 million. There have been 128,000 deaths and the number is increasing.
“We are not flattening the curve at the moment,” Brett Giroir, undersecretary of health, said at a hearing in Congress on Tuesday.
“There is a delay between the confirmed case and hospitalization, and between hospitalization and death. So look at the numbers and you can see how the hospital’s capacity could quickly run out in the coming weeks, ”Saskia Popescu, an epidemiologist at the University of Arizona, told the Washington Post.
Meanwhile, several U.S. Secret Service agents assigned to Vice President Mike Pence tested positive for Covid-19, or showed symptoms just before his planned trip to Arizona earlier this week, according to various reports. CNN claimed that eight Secret Service agents had tested positive, causing a delay in the trip while the people were replaced.
Catherine Milhoan, a Secret Service spokeswoman, said in a statement to CNN: “The health and safety of our workforce, their families and that of our protégés remains the agency’s highest priority.”
Pence recently began wearing a mask in public, after avoiding them earlier despite official federal public health guidance that they help stop the spread.
Trump has refused to wear a mask in public or actively encourage Americans to do so.
Jonathan Reiner, an adviser to the White House medical team under the presidency of George W. Bush, said Thursday night that his president was “clearly flirting with disaster” by holding election rallies without social distancing or wearing masks in the crowd and attend events without wearing a mask yourself.
“Just because it is tested frequently, [that] it’s not a Superman cape, “he told CNN.” He can catch the virus. The more he flirts with this, the more likely he is to get it. “
