Southwest surge helps drive death toll in U.S.

Deaths from the coronavirus are skyrocketing in the United States, reaching levels never before seen, largely fueled by relentless surges in California and Arizona.

As the national death toll nears 400,000, weekly deaths in Maricopa County, Arizona and in Los Angeles and Fresno Counties in California have reached new highs, according to data compiled by The New York Times.

The virus has been raging for weeks in California — especially in Los Angeles County, where COVID-19 has claimed one life about every eight minutes — although state officials said on Wednesday that they were seeing some encouraging signs.

In Arizona over the past week, state officials have recorded the highest number of new coronavirus cases per capita in the country.

Dr. Marjorie Bessel, chief clinical officer for the Banner Health hospitals in Arizona, warned on Wednesday that unless elected leaders and residents did more to stop the spread of the virus, five large health systems risked becoming overwhelmed with patients.

She urged officials to adopt a statewide mask mandate and to ban indoor restaurant dining. Certain cities and counties, such as Maricopa and Pima, have full mask mandates, but Gov. Doug Ducey, a Republican, has resisted calls for a statewide order.

Nationwide, the numbers largely remained grim on Wednesday, though in the Northern Plains, cases this week were at about a quarter of their peak in mid-November, when the region was among the hardest hit in the country. There were at least 3,900 virus deaths in the United States on Wednesday, a day after the country hit a daily record of more than 4,400.