Today’s House hearing on the Trump administration’s coronavirus response comes as at least 25 states are seeing a rise in new reported cases compared to the previous week, according to data from Johns Hopkins University, led by 8 states including Texas, Florida and Arizona.
In Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott warned that “tougher actions” may be imposed if the numbers there continue to spike, but he stressed that closing down the state again “will always be the last option.”
“Covid-19 is now spreading at an unacceptable rate in Texas, and it must be corralled,” Abbott said Monday. Houston’s Health Department said Harris County hospitals have a 177% increase in Covid-19 positive patients since May 31.
The number of coronavirus cases in Florida reached a milestone on Monday, as the state reported 100,217 cases, according to data released by the Florida Department of Health.
The Sunshine State has “all the markings of the next large epicenter of coronavirus transmission,” and risks being the “worst it has ever been,” according to projections from a model by scientists at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and the University of Pennsylvania.
Arizona, where President Trump plans to travel today, continues to see its new case numbers climb. The state averaged about 2,412 new reported cases per day over the week ending June 21, up about 94% from the previous 7-day period, according to a CNN analysis of data from Johns Hopkins University.
Officials say the major thrust of new coronavirus cases in the US is in the South and West has also been attributed to more young people ignoring social distancing measures and testing positive.
Young people are more likely to have milder outcomes from coronavirus, but they can still infect others who are more at risk.
“With younger age of recent infections in at least some places such as Florida, expect a lower death rate in this wave … until the 20-40 year olds who are infected today go on to infect others,” Dr. Tom Frieden, former director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said on Twitter.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, told Axios that the recent high number of cases in young people is “not surprising.” Like Frieden, he warned of what’s to come.
“They get infected first, then they come home, and then they infect the older people. The older people get the complications, and then they go to the hospitals,” Fauci said. “The death rate always lags several weeks behind the infection rate.”
