U.S. Hit By Steep Rise In COVID-19 Deaths; 68,000 Cases In 1 Day
As predicted by epidemiologists, daily deaths from COVID-19 across the United States are now accelerating. Deaths from COVID-19 now exceed the average of 600 daily deaths recorded last week. Based on Worldometer data, the U.S. had about 380 deaths on July 6, some 1,000 deaths on July 7, 900 deaths on July 8 and 960 deaths on July 9 for an average of 800 daily deaths.
Deaths in the U.S. peaked at an average of more than 2,000 per day three months ago, mostly driven by the enormous jump in fatalities in New York and New Jersey. This current unwanted rise in fatalities also repudiates the claim of president Donald Trump the formerly low death rates indicate the country is prevailing against the virus.
The U.S. reported 3.22 million total confirmed cases on July 9 and 135,800 deaths. There were 61,000 new cases on this day. This record was broken Friday when more than 68,000 were recorded -- a single-day record high for the seventh time in 11 days, said a New York Times database.
This week, the country's new death hotspots have shifted to the Sunbelt States of Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia and Texas. Together, these five states accounted for about 46% (440 deaths) of the total new fatalities in the U.S. (960) on July 9. These five states also accounted for a combined 34,471 new and confirmed cases, or 56% of total U.S. cases, which came to 61,067. On the other hand, Johns Hopkins University said there were 63,200 new cases on July 9 -- the highest since the pandemic began.
Epidemiologists increasingly express grave concern over the rising number of deaths. They'd predicted the surge after most U.S. states unwisely reopened their economies before getting their local COVID-19 outbreaks under control.
But the biggest single factor in the current resurgence of COVID-19 is Memorial Day on May 25. Dozens of states and millions of Americans disregarded wearing masks and keeping safe distancing to celebrate at packed bars, restaurants and beaches.
Trump administration officials and the American public should have seen the rise in deaths coming, argues Larry Levitt, executive vice president for health policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser pointed out deaths are a lagging indicator. This means deaths tend to lag new cases because it can take weeks for a patient to get sick enough to be hospitalized and eventually die.
"This was predictable," said Levitt. "We seem to have had difficulty in this country looking a few weeks in advance. But we know the pattern that as more people get infected, more people get hospitalized and ultimately more people die."
The U.S. now faces a pandemic catastrophe. As many as one in 150 people in the U.S. might now be infected by the virus that causes COVID-19, estimates Dr. Scott Gottlieb, former commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
"We must have well over 700,000 infections a day, even though we're only diagnosing about 60,000," said Dr. Gottlieb.
He noted that when the U.S. had 20,000 new diagnosed infections per day, about one in 200 people were actually believed to be infected.
"Now, it must be higher than that," he pointed out.