United States Reports Record Jump in New Coronavirus Cases
Peter Wells in New York
The United States recorded nearly 42,000 new cases of coronavirus in the past 24 hours, the second consecutive day of a record increase nationwide, in the latest indication that the outbreak is spreading rapidly in the south and west.
Another 41,939 people tested positive on the last day, according to data collected Thursday by the Covid Tracking Project, up from nearly 38,700 a day earlier.
The record jump was revealed a few hours after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned that the number of infections across the country could be 10 times higher than suggested by official data due to the number of people not show symptoms of the disease.
Texas reported another 5,996 cases, a record, and more than 5,551 on Wednesday. The state now has 4,739 patients in the hospital with the virus, its highest number at any time during the pandemic and posing a potential threat to its public health system.
Governor Greg Abbott announced today that he would pause that state’s plan to further ease closure restrictions and also banned elective surgeries at hospitals in the largest cities in Texas in an effort to ensure bed availability.
California (5,349) and Florida (5,002) had the next largest increases in new cases and both were below record jumps on Wednesday.
Wisconsin reported 3,342 new cases, a record and far from the average of about 330 in the past seven days. The Covid Tracking Project said the state reported 2,800 “probable cases from previous days.”
Other states with more than 1,000 cases include Arizona (3,056), Georgia (1,714), Alabama (a record 1,142), Mississippi (1,092), North Carolina (1,009), and South Carolina (1,125).
Rounding out the group of five states that reported record one-day jumps, based on FT analysis of Covid Monitoring Project data, were Nevada (497) and Montana (37). The Nevada governor on Wednesday ordered residents to cover their faces.
