Callaghan
O'Hare, Lisa Shumaker JULY 7, 2020
HOUSTON (Reuters) -
The U.S. coronavirus outbreak crossed a grim milestone of over 3 million
confirmed cases on Tuesday as more states reported record numbers of new
infections, and Florida faced an impending shortage of intensive care unit
hospital beds.
Authorities have
reported alarming upswings of daily caseloads in roughly two dozen states over
the past two weeks, a sign that efforts to control transmission of the novel
coronavirus have failed in large swaths of the country.
California, Hawaii,
Idaho, Missouri, Montana, Oklahoma and Texas on Tuesday shattered their
previous daily record highs for new cases. The biggest jumps occurred in Texas
and California, the two largest U.S. states, with more than 10,000 each. About
24 states have reported disturbingly high infection rates as a percentage of
diagnostic tests conducted over the past week.
In Texas alone, the
number of hospitalized patients more than doubled in just two weeks.
The trend has driven
many more Americans to seek out COVID-19 screenings. The U.S. Department of
Health and Human Services said on Tuesday it was adding short-term “surge”
testing sites in three metropolitan areas in Florida, Louisiana and Texas.
In Houston, a line of
more than 200 cars snaked around the United Memorial Medical Center as people
waited hours in sweltering heat to get tested. Some had arrived the night before
to secure a place in line at the drive-through site.
“I got tested because
my younger brother got positive,” said Fred Robles, 32, who spent the night in
his car. “There’s so many people that need to get tested, there’s nothing you
can do about it.”
Dean Davis, 32, who
lost his job due to the pandemic, said he arrived at the testing site at 3 a.m.
Tuesday after he waited for hours on Monday but failed to make the cutoff.
“I was like, let me
get here at 3, maybe nobody will be here,” Davis said. “I got here, there was a
line already.”
In Florida, more than
four dozen hospitals across 25 of 67 counties reported their intensive care
units had reached full capacity, according to the state’s Agency for Health
Care Administration. Only 17% of the total 6,010 adult ICU beds statewide were
available on Tuesday, down from 20% three days earlier.
Iris Ortega, who arrived at 1:50 am, sits in her car as people
wait in their vehicles in long lines for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19)
testing in Houston, Texas, U.S., July 7, 2020. REUTERS/Callaghan O'Hare
Additional
hospitalizations could strain healthcare systems in many areas, leading to an
uptick in lives lost from the respiratory illness that has killed more than
131,000 Americans to date. At least 923 of those deaths were reported Tuesday,
the biggest single-day toll since June 10 but still far fewer than the record
2,806 tallied back in April.
A widely cited
mortality model from the University of Washington’s Institute for Health
Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) projected on Tuesday that U.S. deaths would reach
208,000 by Nov. 1, with the outbreak expected to gain new momentum heading into
the fall.
A hoped-for summertime
decline in transmission of the virus never materialized, the IHME said.
“The U.S. didn’t
experience a true end of the first wave of the pandemic,” the IHME’s director,
Dr. Christopher Murray, said in a statement. “This will not spare us from a
second surge in the fall, which will hit particularly hard in states currently
seeing high levels of infections.”
‘PRESSURE ON GOVERNORS’
President Donald
Trump, who has pushed for restarting the U.S. economy and urged Americans to
return to their normal routines, said on Tuesday he would lean on state
governors to open schools in the fall.
Speaking at the White
House, Trump said some people wanted to keep schools closed for political
reasons. “No way, so we’re very much going to put pressure on governors and
everybody else to open the schools.”
New COVID-19
infections are rising in 42 states, based on a Reuters analysis of the past two
weeks. By Tuesday afternoon, the number of confirmed U.S. cases had surpassed 3
million, affecting nearly one of every 100 Americans and a population roughly
equal to Nevada’s.
In Arizona, another
hot spot, the rate of coronavirus tests coming back positive rose to 26% for
the week ended July 5, leading two dozen states with positivity rates exceeding
5%. The World Heath Organization considers a rate over 5% to be troubling.
The surge has forced
authorities to backpedal on moves to reopen businesses, such as restaurants and
bars, after mandatory lockdowns in March and April reduced economic activity to
a virtual standstill and put millions of Americans out of work.
The Texas state fair,
which had been scheduled to open on Sept. 25, has been canceled for the first
time since World War Two, organizers announced on Tuesday.
In Ohio, Governor Mike
DeWine said the state was ordering people in seven counties to wear face
coverings in public starting Wednesday evening.
Reporting by Callaghan O'Hare in Houston and Lisa Shumaker in
Chicago; Additional reporting by Maria Caspani, Gabriella Borter, Caroline
Humer and Peter Szekely in New York and Susan Heavey and Jeff Mason in
Washington Writing by Paul Simao and Steve Gorman; Editing by Bill Berkrot,
Cynthia Osterman, Tom Brown and Leslie Adler
Our Standards:The Thomson
Reuters Trust Principles.
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