3m cases; US outbreak worsens
HOUSTON: The US coronavirus outbreak crossed a grim milestone of over 3 million confirmed cases yesterday as more states reported record numbers of new infections, and Florida faced an impending shortage of intensive care hospital beds.
Authorities have reported alarming upswings of daily caseloads in roughly two dozen states over the past two weeks.
California, Hawaii, Idaho, Missouri, Montana, Oklahoma and Texas yesterday shattered their previous daily record highs for new cases.
The biggest jumps occurred in Texas and California, the two largest US 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 patients in hospital more than doubled in just two weeks.
The trend has driven many more Americans to seek out Covid19 screenings. The US Department of Health and Human Services said yesterday it was adding shortterm ‘‘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 Centre as people waited hours in sweltering heat to get tested. Some had arrived the night before to secure a place in line.
‘‘I got tested because my younger brother got positive,’’ said Fred Robles (32), who spent the night in his car.
Dean Davis (32), who lost his job due to the pandemic, said he arrived at the testing site at 3am Tuesday (local time) 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 already reached full capacity.
Only 17% of the total 6010 adult ICU beds statewide were available yesterday, down from 20% three days earlier.
Additional hospital admissions could strain healthcare systems in many areas. At least 923 deaths were reported nationwide yesterday, the biggest singleday toll since June 10.
A widelycited mortality model from the University of Washington ’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation projected yesterday that US deaths would reach 208,000 by November 1, and the outbreak was expected to gain new momentum heading into the US autumn.