Texas and Florida hit a bleak record Monday of daily coronavirus deaths based on a seven-day moving average, as hospitalizations continue to rise in 34 states across the United States.
Both Texas and Florida recorded an average record of new daily deaths six times in the past seven days.
Texas had a seven-day average of 118.57 new deaths on Monday, which is almost 39% higher compared to a week ago, according to a CNBC analysis of data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
The state also reported a record daily average of new cases with more than 10,572 cases per day for the past seven days starting Monday, more than 15% compared to a week ago, according to CNBC analysis. The state’s average number of hospitalizations increased by more than 6% from last week after reporting a new record of 10,564 Covid-19 hospitalizations on Monday, according to CNBC data analysis from the Covid Monitoring Project.
Texas officials and funeral directors have ordered additional body bags and refrigerated trucks as they prepare for a surge in Covid-19 deaths.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency will send 14 refrigerated trucks to the state this week, in addition to the eight already shipped, to serve as temporary mortuaries.
“The directors that I spoke to last week are over capacity or over capacity, so they had to bring the trailers,” said Gene Allen, president of the Texas Association of Funeral Directors.
Last month, Texas Governor Greg Abbott paused in the state’s reopening plan after reporting record increases in Covid-19 cases and hospitalizations. After the companies began reopening in May, he has experienced widespread virus infection and a significant increase in the number of confirmed cases.
Abbott also issued an executive order in early July requiring state residents to cover their faces in public spaces in counties with 20 or more positive cases of coronavirus.
“We have the ability to keep business open and move our economy forward so that Texans can continue to earn a salary, but it requires each of us to do our part to protect each other, and that means wearing a mask in public spaces. , “he said in a press release.
Florida broke its record for new average daily deaths for two consecutive days. Her seven-day average of new daily deaths was 113.57 on Monday, a jump of about 59% from last week, according to CNBC’s analysis of the Johns Hopkins data.
The state has been reporting record spikes in new daily cases in the past few months since it allowed companies to reopen.
Florida reported 12,523 new cases of Covid-19 on Saturday, marking the fifth consecutive day that the hotspot state reported more than 10,000 new infections, according to the state health department.
Hospitalizations have also increased in recent weeks. As of Monday, hospitalizations increased to 9,489 Covid-19 patients statewide, according to the Covid Follow-Up Project. Since Florida began reporting its hospitalization data on July 10, the number of coronavirus patients has increased by 36%.
“The residents here are terrified and I am terrified, for the first time in my career because there is a lack of leadership,” said Rep. Donna Shalala, D-Democrat, whose district is in Miami-Dade County, on ABC on Sunday. ” This Week. ” “It’s terrible. We have community spread, which means the virus is out of control.”
– CNBC’s Will Feuer, Noah Higgins-Dunn and Berkeley Lovelace Jr. contributed to this report.
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