(Reuters) – The number of deaths from the US coronavirus surpassed 130,000 on Monday, following a surge in new cases that has put President Donald Trump’s handling of the crisis under the microscope and derailed efforts to restart the economy.
FILE PHOTO: A medical worker walks past a row of ambulances parked outside Houston Methodist Hospital as storm clouds gather over the Texas Medical Center, amid the global outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) . in Houston, Texas, USA, June 22, 2020. REUTERS / Callaghan O’Hare
The overall rate of increase in deaths in the US has been trending down even as case numbers have risen to record levels in recent days, but health experts warn that deaths are an indicator lagging, appearing weeks or even months after the increase in cases.
Nationally, cases are close to 3 million, the highest number in the world and double the number of infections reported in the second most affected country, Brazil. Case numbers are increasing in 39 US states, according to a Reuters analysis.
Sixteen states have released new daily case records this month. Florida confirmed a record 11,000 in a single day, more than any European country reported in a single day at the height of the crisis there.
While health experts warned the public not to gather in crowds to celebrate Independence Day over the weekend, the President of the United States, Donald Trump, claimed without providing evidence that 99% of cases of Coronaviruses from the United States were “totally harmless”.
At least five states have already resisted the downward trend in the national death rate, a Reuters analysis showed. Arizona had 449 deaths in the last two weeks of June, compared to 259 deaths in the first two weeks of the month. The state recorded a 300% increase in cases throughout the month, the most in the country.
Steve Adler, the Democrat mayor of Austin, Texas, on Monday criticized Republican Trump’s comment over the weekend that the virus was primarily harmless.
“It is incredibly damaging and the messages from the President of the United States are dangerous,” Adler told CNN. “One of the biggest challenges we have is the message coming out of Washington suggesting that the masks don’t work or that they don’t need to or that the virus goes away on its own.”
The high number of cases and crowded hospitals in Texas have prompted some mayors and other local leaders to consider launching a new round of stay-at-home orders. Cities are uniting and lobbying the state governor to re-establish authority to impose local measures against the coronavirus, Adler said.
White House chief of staff Mark Meadows defended Trump’s comment over the weekend on Monday, saying the president was not trying to minimize deaths.
“But it is really statistical to know that whatever risks you may have or that I may have, or that my, my children or my grandchildren may have, let’s see that appropriately and I think that is what you are trying to do,” he said. . Reporters outside the White House.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention predicted between 140,000 and 160,000 coronavirus deaths before July 25 in projections based on 24 independent forecasts.
Reports by Lisa Shumaker, Doina Chiacu and Gabriella Borter; Editing by Howard Goller
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