Coronavirus update: U.S. covid cases set another record as death toll rises
Here are some significant developments:
Nationwide, states reported a total of 67,211 new confirmed cases Friday, eclipsing the previous single-day record set earlier in the week by nearly 6,000. Cases continued to rise in hard-hit states in the Sun Belt, with Midwestern states also tallying significant increases.
Coronavirus-related hospitalizations reached their highest level since early May, with 50,100 patients nationwide, according to the Covid Tracking Project.
In Texas, where roughly 10,000 coronavirus patients were hospitalized and more than 3,000 people have died of the virus, some counties were preparing for a wave of new deaths by requesting refrigerator trucks to store bodies that can’t fit in overflowing morgues.
“That’s why we’re asking people to wear face masks,” Nueces County Judge Barbara Canales told KRIS in Corpus Christi. “I am now having to order additional body bags and morgue trailers. People have to understand how real it is.”
Many states are struggling to mount a coherent response to the rise in infections and deaths. Dozens of counties in Texas have either refused to enforce or opted out of Gov. Greg Abbott’s statewide order to wear masks in public — a measure health experts say is critical for slowing the spread of the virus.
The Republican governor, whose aggressive reopening plan preceded the virus surge in Texas, said new cases were expected to keep climbing and warned that the state would have to go back into lockdown if people continued to defy the mask mandate.
“I made clear that I made this tough decision for one reason: It was our last best effort to slow the spread of covid-19,” Abbott told KLBK. “If we do not slow the spread of covid-19 … the next step would have to be a lockdown.”
In Georgia, which reported a record 4,484 new cases Friday, Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms (D) announced she was rolling back the city’s reopening plan to its first phase while officials tried to curb the spike in cases. The move drew an immediate rebuke from Gov. Brian Kemp (R), who called it “unenforceable” but stopped short of invalidating it.
“I stand by the enforceability of our ordinance,” Bottoms said, “and that ordinance will be enforced in the same way we would enforce any other city ordinance.”
Other governors have paused or begun to reverse reopening efforts but have waffled on whether to issue statewide mask requirements.
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) tried to mandate masks in the spring but backed down after a torrent of criticism. He has since instituted a county-by-county approach, only requiring masks in places where health officials say where coronavirus spread is “very high.” In a rare front-page editorial Saturday, the Columbus Dispatch said the move was “akin to closing the barn door after the horses have escaped.”
Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards (D) is also facing increasing pressure to set statewide mask requirements after the seven-day average for new infections in the state reached its highest level since a peak in early April. Edwards has avoided issuing such an order so far, saying it would be difficult to enforce and was best left to local governments.
