More than 138,000 people have died of coronaviruses across the country, and experts warn that number is likely to increase as hospitalizations increase in various states. In Texas and Arizona, morgues are filling up in the worst affected areas, and authorities are bringing in refrigerators and refrigerated trailers to store the bodies.
In South Texas Hidalgo County, some patients have to wait on a stretcher for 10 hours before being examined due to lack of resources, said Dr. Ivan Melendez, the public health authority.
“We are in dire need and we are exhausted,” he said. “We had four patients in the ICU. Now we have 211. We had three people on ventilators. Now we have 135.”
The county has seen more than 10,000 confirmed cases of Covid-19, more than 1,200 reported Thursday alone, he said.
The debate on the use of masks heats up
Kemp extended Georgia’s emergency coronavirus restrictions and said that while people are “encouraged” to wear face covers, they are not necessary. While the order limits public gatherings to 50 people and requires social distancing, it also prevents local governments from enforcing stricter regulations than those of the state, including requiring face masks.
But Bottoms’ office told CNN that his order is still in effect. “Science and data will continue to drive the city’s decisions. Masks save lives,” said a spokesman.
City officials took their protest to social media, where the mayor tweeted that “a better use of taxpayers’ money would be to expand testing and contact tracking.”
“This is exactly the opposite of what we need to be doing,” Utah County Commissioner Tanner Ainge said in the meeting room in Provo. “We are supposed to physically distance ourselves, wear masks. This meeting violates current health recommendations.”
With the lack of federal mandates, states are taking matters into their own hands and issuing orders that require people to wear masks in public.
Colorado, Arkansas, Alabama and Montana require face masks in public places when social distancing is impossible.
Lagged Test Results Hinder Efforts
States rely on data testing to make crucial decisions about reopening and resources. But that data is lagging as test sites get supported.
The tests are being conducted in much larger numbers, a positive development. But the increase is also slowing results, and officials want to cut wait times for results.
“Even in the big commercial labs, and we follow this every day, there may be an outlier of 10 or 12 days, we can’t deny that happening,” said Admiral Brett Giroir of the US Department of Health. Human Services,
He wants test results to come back as quickly as possible, but a three-day change is “very reasonable,” he said.
Commercial labs have said they are backed, and results often take up to seven days to change. “I will never say that I am happy with any response time,” added Giroir.
Giroir says between 700,000 and 800,000 people are tested every day. That means it will be a week before officials know how many of them are infected.
Young people warned to be cautious
The country’s leading infectious disease expert has a message for young people: You are not immune to serious infections.
While the data shows that youth are less likely to become seriously ill, there is ample evidence that youth were “hit on their backs and knees very quickly” by Covid-19, said Dr. Anthony Fauci.
He warned young people that this is not the time to risk exposing yourself to the virus. Many of them get horribly sick for weeks, he told Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
“I have never seen an infection with this wide range of manifestations,” he said. “You’re going to be back to normal and you can have fun freely, go to the bars, go with the crowd, but not now.”
States stock up on refrigerated trucks
Thirty-nine states reported an increase in the number of new cases in the previous week. California, Florida, Arizona, and Texas have become states to watch how increasing cases of coronavirus lead to a shortage of hospital beds.
Arizona hospitals are struggling to cope with the influx of patients with Covid-19. Dr. Murtaza Akhter, an emergency physician, described it as a “clogged sink with the faucet still running.”
Arizona’s high temperatures are causing additional problems for some waiting to be tested for Covid-19. Some are passing out and end up in the emergency room, Akhter told CNN’s Don Lemon on Thursday night.
In Maricopa County, which has the majority of Covid-19 cases in the state, the medical examiner’s office has secured portable coolers to help store more bodies as the morgues fill up, authorities said.
Texas Bexar County, where San Antonio is located, has also secured refrigerated trailers to store bodies until they can be delivered to funeral homes, authorities said.
Cameron and Hidalgo counties in Texas share a large refrigerated trailer to store bodies of patients with coronavirus due to lack of space in the morgues. The Dallas County morgue also had to use an external refrigerated truck this week due to the increased workload, the Medical Examiner’s Office told CNN.
“I anticipate that at some point we will have to reuse the truck based on the continued increase in volume.” said Dr. Jeffrey Barnard, a Dallas County medical examiner.
CNN’s Lauren Mascarenhas, Joe Sutton, Jon Passantino, Sarah Moon, Jennifer Henderson and Maggie Fox contributed to this report.
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