The number of confirmed new coronavirus cases per day in the US hit an all-time high of 40,000 according to figures released on Friday, eclipsing the mark set during one of the deadliest stretches in late April – in a resurgence that has led some governors to backtrack or at least pause the reopening of their states.
While the increase is believed to reflect, in part, greatly expanded testing, experts say there is ample evidence the virus is making a comeback, including rising deaths and hospitalizations in parts of the country, especially in the south and west. Arizona, Texas and Florida are among the states that have been hit hard.
The number of confirmed infections soared past the previous high set on 24 Aprilof 36,400, according to the count kept by Johns Hopkins University.
Deaths from the coronavirus in the US are down to around 600 per day, compared with about 2,200 in mid-April.
Some experts have expressed doubt that deaths will return to that level, in part because of advances in treatment and prevention but also because a large share of the new infections are in younger adults, who are more likely than older ones to survive.
The virus is blamed for 124,000 deaths in the US and 2.4m confirmed infections nationwide, by Johns Hopkins’ count.
But US health officials said on Thursday that the true number of Americans infected is about 20 million, or almost 10 times higher. Worldwide, the virus has claimed close to a half-million lives, according to Johns Hopkins.
Arizona late Thursday joined Texas in putting the brakes on its reopening plans amid a sharp surge in coronavirus infections, as cases are now rising across 29 states.
Health experts warned on Friday that the US was not doing enough testing for Covid-19 and that simply pausing reopening plans in some states – as others continue to roar ahead – would not be enough to stem the spread of the disease.
“Pausing reopening is not enough. We have got to try to ‘put the horse back in the barn’, as it were … we need to start to reverse the opening up,” Ashish Jha, director of Harvard University’s Global Health Institute, told ABC on Friday morning.
He warned that hospitals are going to be overwhelmed in states across the south and west where infections are surging, unless leaders take stronger measures to stop the spread.
Jha urged more testing, saying the US was not doing enough, even though it is performing an estimated 500,000 tests per day, after the CDC on Thursday said that there were likely an estimated 10 times as many Americans who have or have had coronavirus than current statistics show.
“They are missing cases because there is not enough testing, they are way below where they need to be,” said Jha.
Donald Trump on Thursday repeated his false assertion that more testing is responsible for the increased numbers of cases being reported.
“If you did not do testing, you would not have cases,” he said on a trip to Wisconsin.
An ABC/Ipsos poll on Friday showed that 56% of Americans believe the country is opening back up too quickly, with no vaccine and no cure available for Covid-19.
Jha urged Americans to wear face masks in public. “It’s a pretty small step to take to make sure our hospitals don’t get overwhelmed,” he said, asserting that masks do help prevent the spread, despite a high-profile anti-mask backlash in some parts of the country.
In Texas the governor, Greg Abbott, abruptly halted the push to loosen more restrictions and is now urgently telling people to stay home.
Arizona governor Doug Ducey, like Abbott a Republican, did the same, declaring the state “on pause” as hospitals accelerate toward capacity.
As an alarming coronavirus resurgence sets records for confirmed cases and hospitalizations across the US south and west, governors are retreating to measures they once resisted and striking a more urgent tone.
“I think they’re going to have to,” said Dr Mark McClellan, former head of the Food and Drug Administration. “It doesn’t take most people in a community getting sick to overwhelm health care systems.”
Critics bristle that the actions are too little, or worse, possibly too late as patients fill up intensive-care beds and the US closes in on hitting all-time highs for daily confirmed cases.
But Florida’s governor, Ron DeSantis, who until recently had rarely worn a face covering, has said he won’t impose statewide mask orders or delay reopening. And Abbott says shutting down the Texas economy again is a last resort.
The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research latest data says many Americans never fully embraced the reopening effort now underway in many states.
A majority of Americans still have concerns about contracting Covid-19, and significant shares still support the kinds of public health restrictions that states have rolled back.
The number of cases in Duval county, which is home to Jacksonville, Florida, where the Republicans plan to hold their convention in August, after switching from North Carolina because of greater restrictions on gatherings, has shot up along with statewide numbers.
Congresswoman Donna Shalala of Florida, a former secretary of Health and Human Services during the Clinton administration, called on DeSantis to make a course correction.
“He followed the president’s leadership, and people have died because of it,” she said. “He can pivot and take very strong steps.”
In Arkansas, governor Asa Hutchinson has urged people to cover their faces and even begins his daily briefings by showing off his mask. But the Republican governor has resisted calls to require them, arguing that it would be difficult to enforce in a rural state.
In Arizona, Ducey resisted pressure to close businesses as the virus first spread in March.
Now Ducey has put the brakes on reopening.
The numbers “continue to go in the wrong direction,” Ducey said Thursday.
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